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A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY 


THE    FERRY 


STUDIES  FROM  LIFE  AMONG  THE  CHINESE 


BY 

ADELE   M.   FIELDE 

AUTHOB  OF  A  "DICTIONARY  OF  THE  SWATOW  DIALECT,"  "PAGODA  SHADOWS 
"CHINESE  NIGHTS'  ENTERTAINMENT, "  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  ARTISTS  IN  THE  CELEBRATED  SCHOOL 
OF  GO  LENG,  AT  SWA  TOW,  CHINA 


fforfc 
MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 

.AND    LONDON 
1894 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1894, 
BY  MACMILLAN  AND   CO. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  March,  1894.      Reprinted 
November,  1894. 


NortoootJ 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  — Berwick  &  Smith. 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TO 

.  35.  fH. 

WHOSE   PATIENT   LOVE,   STEADFAST   AS   STARS 

SELF-LIGHTED,   FAR   AWAY, 

ILLUMED   FOR   ME,   THROUGH   ALL   THE   YEARS, 
MY  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 


2226969 


PEEFACE. 


THESE  studies  were  made  during  a  residence  of  fifteen 
years  in  China,  chiefly  at  Swatow,  in  the  southeastern 
corner,  with  frequent  sojourn  in  villages  which  no  other 
foreigner  had  ever  visited,  and  with  extensive  travel  in 
other  parts  of  the  empire.  Acquaintance  with  the  local 
dialect  and  with  many  native  women  enabled  the 
writer  to  gain  information  directly  from  all  classes  and 
from  both  sexes;  and  whatever  is  here  recorded  has 
been  amply  verified  by  personal  observation.  The  sub- 
jects treated  have  been  discussed  with  many  natives, 
and  only  such  ideas  are  set  forth  as  were  generally 
agreed  upon  as  true,  at  least  for  the  eastern  department 
of  the  Kwangtung  province. 

A  portion  of  this  volume  consists  of  papers  previously 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

published  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  and  other 
periodicals. 

The  importance  of  the  Chinese  question,  and  the 
grave  political  issues  connected  with  its  solution,  make 
it  worth  while  to  understand  the  character  of  our  Mon- 
golian guests,  and  to  know  whether  the  thoughts  con- 
cealed by  their  immobile  visages  are  very  unlike  our 
own. 

There  is  a  singular  homogeneity  in  the  Chinese,  and 
a  remarkable  general  conformity  to  type.  While  many 
things  here  portrayed  are  local,  it  is  believed  that  all 
are  typical  of  the  nation  as  a  whole. 

Where  economic  questions  are  considered,  the  Eng- 
lish reader  may  estimate  the  dollar  at  four  shillings, 
and  two  cents  as  a  penny. 

NEW  YORK,  1894. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

FARM-LIFE  IN  CHINA 1 

ECONOMY,  HOUSEHOLD  AND  PERSONAL        ....  14 

MARRIAGE  LAWS  AND  USAGES 24 

MORTUARY  CUSTOMS .49 

BABIES  AND  THEIR  GRANDMOTHERS  71 

CHILDREN'S  GAMES 79 

SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLING 94 

MEASURES  OF  TIME Ill 

SUITS  IN  LAW ,  120 

FABULOUS  PEOPLE  AND  ANIMALS 132 

SUNDRY  SUPERSTITIONS 139 

A  QUEER  AUTUMN  ENTERTAINMENT 152 

THE  CHINESE  THEORY  OF  EVOLUTION         ....  158 

CONFUCIUS  AND  HIS  TEACHINGS 166 

THE  TAUISTS  AND  THEIR  MAGIC  ARTS       ....  214 

CHINESE  PIETY,  FILIAL,  FRATERNAL,  AND  FRIENDLY       .  257 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


THE  FERRY Frontispiece 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

A  FRIENDLY  CHAT 10 

A  PROPOSAL  OF  MARRIAGE 26 

THE  DEPARTURE  OF  THE  BRIDE 38 

SETTING  OUT  FOR  THE  CEMETKRY        ....  68 

GOING  TO  VISIT  A  MARRIED  DAUGHTER      ....  76 

A  FAMILY  MEAL 110 

THE  HOLE-IN-THE-CHEST  PEOPLE 132 

PYGMIES  OUT  FOR  A  WALK 138 

THE  WOMEN'S  APARTMENT 156 

WOMEN  AT  A  SHRINE 214 

AN  HONORARY  PORTAL 264 


A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 


FARM-LIFE. 

THE  number  of  persons  that  may  subsist  upon 
the  products  of  an  acre  of  land  appears  to  have  been 
practically  determined  by  the  Chinese.  On  ground 
that  has  been  tilled  for  thousands  of  years  they,  by 
a  skilful  use  of  fertilizers  and  by  attention  to  the 
welfare  of  each  plant,  raise  crops  that  would  honour 
a  virgin  soil. 

In  the  Swatow  region  probably  nine  tenths  of  the 
men  are  engaged  in  agriculture.  The  farmers  live 
in  villages,  isolated  dwellings  being  uncommon.  The 
villages  are  walled,  contain  no  wasted  space,  and  are 
densely  peopled.  The  wide-spreading,  flat  fields, 
lying  along  the  river-banks  at  the  foot  of  the  hills,  may 


2  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

be  made  to  yield  a  constant  series  of  crops  without 
interval  on  account  of  winter.  Their  chief  produc- 
tions are  rice,  sugar-cane,  sweet  potatoes,  pulse,  gar- 
den vegetables,  peanuts,  indigo,  sesamum,  ginger, 
the  grass-cloth  plant,  tobacco,  and  wheat.  Rice  is  the 
staple  food  of  the  people,  and  in  the  best  years  the 
local  product  just  supplies  the  local  demand.  Sugar 
is  the  principal  export.  The  cane  requires  less  labour 
than  any  other  crop,  and  will  grow  upon  unwatered 
land,  which  is  unsuitable  for  rice-culture.  One  crop 
of  cane  or  two  crops  of  other  produce  may  be  grown 
in  the  same  year  upon  unwatered  land.  On  the  best 
rice-fields  three  crops  are  sometimes  raised.  The  early 
rice  is  sowed  in  April  and  harvested  in  July;  the 
late  rice  is  sowed  in  August  and  harvested  in  Novem- 
ber, and  the  field  is  then  sometimes  planted  with 
garden  vegetables,  which  are  pulled  in  March.  The 
expense  of  fertilizing  the  third  crop  is  so  nearly  equal 
to  its  value  that  it  is  never  reckoned  as  a  source  of 
profit  to  the  cultivator. 


FARM-LIFE.  3 

The  whole  country  belongs  theoretically  to  its  sov- 
ereign, and  upon  all  land  that  can  be  tilled  with  profit 
a  tax  is  paid  into  the  imperial  treasury.  The  sum 
due  annually  to  the  government  for  the  use  of  land  is 
fixed  for  each  field,  amounts  to  from  sixty  cents  to 
two  dollars,  and  averages  a  dollar  and  a  half  upon 
each  acre. 

When  a  father  dies,  his  land  is  divided  equally 
among  his  sons,  the  eldest  receiving  an  additional 
tenth  on  account  of  the  extra  expense  to  which  he  is 
put  in  worshipping  the  spirits  of  the  ancestors.  The 
land  is  distributed  very  generally,  though  unequally, 
among  the  people,  and  is  usually  tilled  by  its  peas- 
ant proprietors.  Few  own  so  much  as  two  hundred 
acres;  one  who  owns  ten  acres  is  reckoned  wealthy, 
and  he  who  owns  one  acre  possesses  a  competence. 
Those  who  own  from  one  tenth  to  one  half  an  acre 
are  most  numerous,  and  therefore  there  are  many 
who  till  land  for  a  share  of  the  produce.  Land  that 
is  too  sterile  for  profitable  cultivation  or  for  taxation 


4  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

sells  for  from  six  to  sixty  dollars  an  acre,  while  good 
farm-land  is  valued  at  from  three  hundred  to  eight 
hundred  dollars  an  acre.  Rice-fields  not  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  city  sell  readily  for  six  hundred  dol- 
lars an  acre,  and  are  not  always  to  be  bought  at  that 
price,  because  those  who  own  land  find  it  the  safest 
investment,  and  part  with  it  only  when  under  the 
stress  of  debt.  The  bursting  of  dikes,  drought,  and 
bad  habits,  are  the  chief  causes  of  the  transfer  of 
land,  and  the  sale  of  a  child  often  precedes  that  of 
the  rice-field.  Interest  on  money  lent  is  from  twelve 
to  twenty  per  cent,  according  to  agreement  between 
lender  and  borrower. 

The  chief  expense  of  tillage  is  in  fertilizers,  beans 
and  seeds  from  which  the  oil  has  been  expressed  be- 
ing commonly  used,  at  an  outlay  of  from  six  to 
forty  and  an  average  of  twenty-four  dollars  upon 
every  acre  of  land.  Besides  this,  potato-peelings, 
hair  from  shaven  heads,  and  all  other  vegetable  and 
animal  refuse  is  carefully  husbanded  and  methodi- 


FARM-LIFE.  5 

cally  applied  to  the  soil.  The  clods  of  the  field  are 
laid  up  into  little  ovens  to  retain  and  be  enriched 
by  the  smoke  of  the  stubble  burned  underneath 
them.  Adobe  houses,  whose  walls  have  for  many 
years  absorbed  the  fumes  of  a  kitchen  and  the  ex- 
halations of  human  inmates,  are  pulverized  and 
added  to  the  ever-hungry  earth.  Each  growing 
plant  separately  receives  distinguished  consideration,  a 
scrap  of  tobacco-stalk  being  sometimes  put  beside  its 
root  to  destroy  underground  grubs,  while  its  leaves 
are  frequently  examined  and  sedulously  freed  from 
vermin.  The  rotation  of  crops  is  always  practised. 
As  no  milk,  butter,  nor  cheese  is  used,  the  only 
quadruped  seen  on  the  farm  is  the  water-buffalo, 
or  the  zebu,  which  assists  in  ploughing  and  harrowing. 
Many  farmers  rear  ducks,  which  are  taken  to  the 
fields  to  devour  the  snails,  crabs,  and  young  frogs 
which  thrive  there  at  planting-time.  Fowls  often 
accompany  the  harvesters,  picking  up  the  last  grains 
left  among  the  stubble. 


6  A   CORNER   O.F   CATHAY. 

Few  families  are  without  the  ubiquitous  black  hog, 
whose  usual  habitat  is  the  door-step.  Its  food  is  the 
bran  of  the  rice  hulled  and  eaten  in  the  house  ;  its 
head  is  the  chief  offering  set  before  the  gods,  and 
its  flesh  is  most  highly  esteemed  among  festive  viands. 
It  is  reared  at  small  expense,  makes  no  disputed 
demand  on  space,  furnishes  the  unctuous  element  in 
a  satisfying  bill  of  fare,  and  can  always  be  sold  at 
ten  cents  a  pound. 

The  farming  appliances  are  simple,  and  a  complete 
outfit  can  be  bought  for  forty  dollars.  A  plough  with 
two  shares,  a  pair  of  harrows,  and  a  fanning-mill 
each  cost  two  dollars;  a  pump  worked  by  treadles 
in  irrigating  the  fields,  four  dollars;  a  water-buffalo, 
twenty  dollars;  hoes,  sickles,  baskets,  and  sundries, 
ten  dollars. 

When  land  is  leased,  the  owner  pays  the  taxes, 
and  the  lessee  furnishes  all  that  is  required  in  till- 
age. Payment  to  the  landlord  is  always  made  in 
unhusked  rice,  and  when  the  land  is  worked  on 


FARM-LIFE.  7 

shaves,  this  amounts  to  about  one  half  the  crop.  The 
usual  bargain  for  the  use  of  land  is  a  ton  and  a 
quarter  of  unhusked  rice,  worth  about  thirty  dollars, 
for  each  acre.  If  the  year  be  remarkably  bad,  the 
lessee  may  insist  upon  the  landlord's  taking  one  half 
the  crop,  though  that  be  manifestly  much  less  than 
the  amount  agreed  upon  as  payment.  If  the  year 
be  good  and  the  land  excellent,  the  lessee  may  pay 
one  third  of  his  crop  to  the  landlord,  may  have 
expended  another  third  upon  fertilizers,  and  may 
have  the  other  third  as  net  profit  for  his  labour.  As 
one  man  is  unable  to  till  more  than  one  acre  alone, 
the  average  yearly  earnings  of  men  who  work  land 
on  shares  is  less  than  thirty  dollars.  One  acre  of 
good  land  produces  on  the  average  3648  pounds 
of  clean  rice. 

A  farmer  may  be  hired  by  the  year  for  from  eight 
to  fourteen  dollars,  with  food,  clothing,  head-shaving, 
and  tobacco.  Those  who  work  by  the  day  receive 
from  eight  to  ten  cents,  with  a  noon-day  meal.  At 


8  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

the  planting  and  harvesting  of  rice,  wages  are  from 
ten  to  twenty  cents  a  day,  with  five  meals ;  or  thirty 
cents  a  day,  without  food.  Few  land-owners  hire 
hands,  except  for  a  few  days  during  the  planting 
and  harvesting  of  rice.  Those  who  have  more  land 
than  they  and  their  sons  can  till,  lease  it  to  their 
neighbours. 

Much  land  is  held  on  leases  given  by  ancient 
proprietors  to  clansmen  whose  descendants  now  till 
it,  paying  from  seven  to  fourteen  dollars'  worth  of 
rice  annually  for  its  use. 

Food  averages  little  more  than  a  dollar  a  month 
for  each  member  of  a  farmer's  family.  One  who 
buys,  cooks,  and  eats  his  meals  alone,  spends  from 
one  and  a  half  to  two  dollars  a  month  upon  the  raw 
material  and  fuel.  Two  pounds  of  rice,  costing  three 
and  a  half  cents,  with  relishes  of  salt  fish,  pickled 
cabbage,  vegetables  and  fruits,  costing  a  cent  and  a 
half,  is  the  ordinary  allowance  to  each  labourer  for 
each  day.  Abernethy's  advice  to  a  luxurious  patient, 


FARM-LIFE.  9 

"Live  on  sixpence  a  day  and  earn  it,"  is  followed 
by  nearly  every  Chinaman.  One  or  two  dependent 
relatives  frequently  share  with  him  the  sixpence. 

Five  dollars,  wisely  spent,  each  year,  will  supply 
comfortable  and  even  elegant  clothing  for  a  man  or 
a  woman.  The  clothing  is  usually  woven  in  hand- 
looms  in  the  farmer's  house,  from  the  fibre  of  the 
grass-cloth  plant  {Boehmeria  nivea),  or  from  imported 
cotton  yarn.  The  average  amount  of  clothing  pos- 
sessed by  a  farmer  may  be  reckoned  at  four  dollars 
in  value. 

A  room  may  be  comfortably  furnished  by  an  outlay 
of  five  dollars,  and  such  a  room  would  usually  be 
occupied  by  three  or  four  persons.  The  house  varies 
in  value,  from  the  twenty-dollar  cabin  of  the  poor 
to  the  thousand-dollar  dwelling  of  the  rich.  The 
value  of  the  land  in  the  villages  in  which  the  agri- 
culturists live  is  from  six  to  eight  hundred  dollars 
an  acre. 

As    the    emigration    of    men    is    constant,  and   the 


10  A   CORNER   OF   OATHAY. 

smothering  of  female  infants  is  common,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  the  land  will  support  no  more  than  its  pres- 
ent population.  One  sixth  of  an  acre  to  each  mouth 
to  be  filled  is  commonly  declared  to  be  the  least 
that  will  enable  the  cultivator  to  live  upon  his  own 
land,  even  with  the  highest  tillage  and  the  utmost 
frugality.  One  acre,  tilled  by  the  peasant  proprietor 
alone,  will  feed  six  persons  —  the  peasant,  his  wife, 
his  aged  father  and  mother,  and  his  two  young  chil- 
dren. It  will  yield  rice,  hulled  in  the  house,  and 
vegetables,  raised  between  rice-crops,  sufficient  for 
food.  The  straw  and  stubble  will  serve  as  fuel, 
and  the  pig  and  fowls  will  supply  meat.  The  cloth- 
ing will  be  woven  and  made  by  the  wife,  while  the 
old  couple  take  care  of  the  children.  The  aged  and 
the  young  are  thus  provided  for  through  the  land 
which  has  been  the  property  of  the  one  and  will  be 
the  inheritance  of  the  other.  If  dirt,  superstition, 
and  mendacity  were  eliminated  from  such  a  home, 
its  inmates  would  appear  eminently  fit  to  survive. 


A    FRIENDLY    CHAT 


FAKM-LIFE.  11 

A  process  of  natural  selection  has  doubtless  adapted 
the  Chinese  to  their  environment. 

The  following  cases  illustrate  a  multitude  of  their 
kind:  — 

Two  brothers  of  my  acquaintance,  aged  thirty-one 
and  thirty-two  years,  inherited  from  their  father 
one  acre  of  land,  half  of  which  is  watered.  Their 
house,  with  the  ground  on  which  it  is  built,  is 
worth  fifty,  their  furniture  fifteen,  their  clothing 
twenty,  and  their  farming  appliances  thirty  dollars. 
They  live  as  well  as  their  neighbours,  have  paid 
up  a  debt  inherited  with  their  land,  and  are  now 
laying  up  money  to  invest  in  wives.  Twenty  years 
ago  a  wife  could  be  betrothed  for  thirty  dollars, 
whereas  none  can  now  be  obtained  for  less  than  a 
hundred  dollars,  #nd  the  price  is  rapidly  rising. 
Last  year  they  got  twenty-seven  dollars'  worth  of 
rice  from  one  half  their  farm,  after  having  put  on 
twelve  dollars'  worth  of  fertilizers.  On  the  other 
half  they  planted  sugar-cane,  put  on  fifteen  dollars' 


12  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

worth  of  manure,  and  sold  the  standing  crop  for 
forty  dollars.  The  younger  brother  did  nearly  all 
the  work. 

Pong  Hia  lives  in  a  village  of  three  hundred  per- 
sons, in  which  about  thirty  men  are  land-owners, 
having  altogether  forty-five  acres  of  land.  Pong  Hia 
owns  two  acres,  inherited  from  the  father  who  adopted 
him.  His  land  is  worth  one  thousand  dollars.  His 
family  consists  of  ten  persons.  He  is  himself  forty- 
six  years  old,  his  wife  is  forty-one,  his  son  is  twenty- 
two,  his  son's  wife  is  twenty-one,  his  four  daughters 
are  from  ten  to  seventeen,  and  his  two  grandchil- 
dren are  three  and  seven  years  old.  He  and  his 
son  till  the  land,  hiring  help  at  harvest-time,  and 
weaving  straw  mats  on  rainy  days.  The  women-folk 
make  the  clothing,  rear  pigs  and  fowls,  and  do  all 
the  house-work.  Their  dwelling,  with  its  site,  is 
valued  at  a  hundred  and  twenty  dollars,  their  furni- 
ture at  forty-four  dollars,  their  clothing  at  forty 
dollars,  their  farming  appliances  at  forty  dollars. 


FAKX-OFEL  13 

They  hare  a  watra-lnffialo,  tiro  lugs,  thirty  fowls,, 
tea  dudes,  a  pur  of  geese,  a  dog,  and  a  cat.  Last 
year  Pong  HSa  sold  twenty  dottus'  worth  of  rice 
from  M>  Jbzm.  and  paid  $£.60  in.  taxes.  He  las 
two  hundred  doUais  out  at  interest*  at  eighteen  per 


At  this  rate   off  production  and  consumption,  the 

aimHe  land  in  the  St^ie  iof  Xew  Y*o«rk.  wida  a 
tion  of  one  balf  iits  menujrns  cm  aiDDCMiLni  of  lies 
ncffthem   latitude,  wiowaltii  smppoint    ibe    tonal 

JT  JT 

tion  of  the  Cmiied  States  at  u2n<e  pnesemi  lime 
the  oeeapied  arable  land  of  the  Cmited  Siaies. 
its  producing  power  dimiioishied,  on  account  of  <dli- 
mate,  to  one  half  thait  of  land  at  Swatow.  wwaliii 
feed  a  population  equal  to  that  of  the  whole  worid, 
or  oyer  1,400,000,000. 


PERSONAL    AND    HOUSEHOLD    ECONOMY. 

The  starving  is  most  troubled  by  his  emptiness ; 

When  filled,  he's  troubled  that  no  wife  his  home  doth  bless ; 

Having  brought  home  a  wife,  and  helpmeet  of  the  best, 

He's  troubled  that  he  hath  no  children  to  caress ; 

With  five  strong  sons,  and  four  fair  daughters  at  his  side, 

He's  troubled  that  he  doth  not  broader  rooms  possess ; 

Having  built  houses,  granaries,  and  porches  wide, 

He's  troubled  lest  the  great  should  scorn  him  or  oppress ; 

Raised  to  the  highest  rank  and  power,  he's  troubled  lest 

His  sovereign's  wrath  should  bring  on  him  some  new  distress  ! 

THIS  translation  of  a  popular  stanza  shows  the  real 
order  in  which  carking  cares  arise  in  the  Chinese 
mind.  Gravity  and  prudence,  the  power  of  foregoing 
present  gratification  for  the  sake  of  future  well- 
being,  characterize  the  people  generally,  especially 
those  of  the  south. 

In   regard   to    the    first  requirement   of    the    body, 

14 


PERSONAL   AND    HOUSEHOLD    ECONOMY.  15 

food,  they  are  singularly  free  from  prejudices  which 
interfere  with  the  utilization  of  any  harmless  nutri- 
tive substance.  Grubs,  worms,  snails,  snakes, 
squids,  and  jelly-fishes,  as  well  as  the  flesh  of  the 
rat,  cat,  and  dog,  make  for  them  savoury  messes, 
though  these  are  not  staples  in  the  markets.  The 
blood  of  fowl  and  quadruped  is  made  into  edible 
dishes,  and  no  portion  of  any  animal  or  vegetable  is 
wasted.  Milk  and  its  products  are  disliked  only 
because  they  are  essentially  costly,  and  therefore 
uncommon.  The  ground  required  for  feeding  a  cow 
may  be  planted  with  pulse,  and  the  pulse  will  fur- 
nish much  more  of  that  important  food-element, 
caseine,  than  would  the  milk  of  the  cow.  Beans, 
peas,  and  lentils,  in  great  variety,  and  rich  in  the 
nutritive  elements  of  milk,  are  constantly  eaten  in 
toothsome  preparations,  including  a  peculiar  curd 
which  resembles  cheese. 

Grain,   used    in    food-stuffs,    as    milled    by    them, 
keeps  in  its  flour   as    much   of  the   outer  portion    of 


16  A  COENER   OF  CATHAY. 

the  kernel  as  is  digestible.  Vegetable  oils,  always 
cheaper  than  animal  fats,  are  much  used  in  frying, 
and  for  pastry.  Brown  sugar,  one  of  the  chief  prod- 
ucts of  the  south,  retains  its  saccharine  and  its  colour 
in  numberless  confections,  and  reaches  its  most  at- 
tractive aspect  in  rock-candy.  All  sorts  of  fish, 
fowl,  and  flesh  are  salted  and  dried,  for  consumption 
at  seasons  when  fresh  meat  is  dear. 

The  appliances  for  cooking  are  extremely  simple. 
A  few  thin  earthen  pots  and  pans,  set  upon  small 
clay  stoves,  over  tiny  charcoal  fires,  suffice  for  pre- 
paring a  great  number  of  viands.  All  that  is  needed 
for  furnishing  a  kitchen  where  the  most  elaborate 
meals  may  be  perfected,  can  be  procured  for  a  few 
dimes. 

The  custom  of  cutting  all  food  into  shreds  and 
morsels  during  the  culinary  process  saves  time  at 
meals,  and  diminishes  the  service  required  at  table. 
Meats,  vegetables,  and  pasties  are  brought  to  the 
board  in  such  form  that  no  knife  nor  fork  need  be 


PEESONAL   AND   HOUSEHOLD    ECONOMY.  17 

there  applied  to  them,  and  only  a  simple  implement 
for  lifting  them  to  the  mouth  is  laid  beside  the 
plate.  The  relegation  of  all  carving  to  the  kitchen 
vastly  simplifies  the  equipage  for  dining,  without 
destroying  the  individuality  or  diminishing  the  deli- 
cacy of  the  dishes.  The  crockery  used  on  the  table 
is  therefore  of  very  small  size,  and  the  cupboards 
occupy  little  space. 

The  usual  method  of  lighting  a  room  is  by  a 
small  saucer  of  vegetable  oil,  having  the  pith  of  a 
bulrush  laid  within  it  as  a  wick.  This  gives  an 
illumination  sufficient  for  reading  native  books.  One 
quarter  of  an  ounce  of  peanut  oil  will  thus  burn  for 
four  hours;  but  the  many  who  sleep  from  dark  to 
dawn  expend  hardly  anything  on  artificial  light. 

At  night,  only  one  article,  a  straw  mat  in  sum- 
mer, a  cotton  mattress  in  winter,  is  spread  beneath 
the  sleeper;  while  a  single  coverlet,  varying  in 
thickness  with  the  weather,  is  laid  over  him.  As 
the  night-clothes  are  of  precisely  the  same  shape  as 


18  A    CORNER    OF    CATHAY. 

are  those  worn   by  day,  faded   suits  generally  render 
final  service  in  bedrooms. 

As  the  changes  of  fashion  in  dress  are  but  slight, 
a  man  or  woman  may,  without  being  out  of  the 
style,  wear  any  garment  a  lifetime.  A  fixed  fashion 
saves  all  the  wear  and  tear  of  nerve  incident  to 
cutting  by  new  patterns,  and  all  reckoning  as  to  the 
amount  of  cloth  required.  The  only  measurements 
necessary  for  fitting  any  individual,  are,  for  a  tunic, 
from  the  centre  of  the  chest  to  the  wrist,  and  from 
the  neck  to  the  knees.  For  a  pair  of  trousers  or  a 
kirtle,  simply  the  length  from  hip  to  ankle  is  taken. 
The  wearer  may  grow  thinner  or  stouter  without 
remodelling  the  garments.  This  permits  one  to  get 
costly  raiment,  and  then  to  lay  it  away  and  to  main- 
tain for  many  succeeding  years  that  peace  of  mind 
which  accompanies  a  consciousness  of  being  prepared 
for  all  social  emergencies.  It  encourages  exquisite 
weaving  and  rich  embroidery,  because  it  allows  the 
possessor  of  beautiful  and  costly  robes  to  leave  them 


PERSONAL   AND   HOUSEHOLD   ECONOMY.  19 

as  useful  heirlooms.  Women  whose  fashions  in 
clothing  are  permanent  are  morally  justified  in 
arraying  themselves,  as  do  Chinese  ladies,  in  works 
of  true  and  high  art. 

The  patterns  and  the  material  for  clothing  are 
nearly  the  same  for  both  sexes  and  all  ages.  The 
shape  is  such  that  not  a  scrap  of  the  fabric  is  wasted 
in  the  cutting.  When  suspended  to  dry  after  wash- 
ing, the  cloth  hangs  straight  and  requires  no  ironing. 
When  folded  for  packing  away  for  the  season,  or 
for  a  journey,  the  greater  the  pressure,  the  smoother 
the  garment  when  taken  out  for  wear.  A  large  and 
handsome  wardrobe  may  be  kept  in  three  cubic  feet 
of  space,  and  a  lady  can  carry  a  half  dozen  dresses 
in  a  bundle  cinctured  by  a  pocket-handkerchief. 
The  weight  hangs  upon  the  shoulders,  and  there  is 
no  compression  nor  restriction  of  any  muscle.  While 
the  costume  is  modest  and  protective,  the  amount 
of  fabric  used  is  but  small.  Seven  square  yards  or 
less  make  a  complete  summer  suit,  and  thirteen 


20  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

square  yards  a  complete  winter  suit,  including  all 
inner  and  outer  garments,  worn  at  any  one  time  by 
either  a  man  or  a  woman.  In  winter,  warmth  is 
obtained  at  small  cost  by  quilting  raw  cotton  between 
light  and  cheap  textures.  Four  pounds  of  wadding, 
judiciously  distributed  from  neck  to  feet,  keep  the 
wearer  warmer  than  would  thick  and  heavy  goods, 
or  great  expenditure  in  fuel.  In  the  coldest  weather 
a  man  may  be  comfortably  and  handsomely  dressed, 
in  what  would  be  worn  at  a  festival  and  out  of 
doors,  for  about  twelve  dollars.  This  estimate  is 
made  from  the  average  of  the  totals  gained  by  set- 
ting down  the  actual  cost  of  every  garment  worn  at 
one  time  by  several  prosperous  men  in  holiday  attire. 
A  woman's  raiment  has  nearly  the  same  value,  but 
three  dollars  must  be  added  for  indispensable  jew- 
elry —  bracelets,  ear-rings,  and  aigrettes  —  belonging 
to  feminine  costume.  A  well-dressed  man  rarely 
wears,  including  head  and  footgear,  what  has  cost  more 
than  fifteen  dollars;  and  a  woman  may  be  elegantly 


PERSONAL   AND    HOUSEHOLD   ECONOMY.  21 

attired,  with  all  her  ornaments  and  for  the  open  air, 
at  an  expense  of  twenty  dollars. 

In  spite  of  all  this  thrift,  the  necessary  expenses 
of  the  Chinese  labourer  are  great  in  proportion  to 
his  wages;  and  the  vast  majority  are  labourers. 
While  the  highest  offices  are  open  to  every  man 
through  the  competitive  examinations,  and  though 
personal  property  and  real  estate  are  secured  to  their 
owners,  probably  not  more  than  one  person  in  ten 
thousand  is  beyond  the  necessity  of  daily  earning 
daily  bread,  or  of  having  his  children  earn  it  for 
him.  Wealth  is  accumulated  toilsomely,  and  there 
is,  as  in  other  countries,  an  idea  that  it  is  dissipated 
in  about  four  generations.  A  popular  verse  says :  — 

One  generation  toils,  and  meanly  fares  ; 
The  next,  broad  robes  of  fur  and  satin  wears ; 
The  third  sells  off  the  fields  and  pawns  the  home ; 
Its  heirs,  in  tatters,  hungry,  houseless,  roam. 

As  a  rule,  but  little  of  "  the  unearned  increment " 
is  visible  about  the  household.  Phlegm,  persistence, 


22  A  CONNER   OF   CATHAY. 

and  frugality  account  for  all  possessions.  If  a  man 
has  a  wife,  two  children,  and  no  vicious  habits,  and 
works  all  day  for  the  support  of  his  family,  he  can 
scarcely  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  No  one  with- 
out an  income  from  capital  dares  marry.  The  ex- 
penses of  a  household  having  only  the  necessaries 
of  life,  as  is  the  case  in  almost  all  Chinese  fami- 
lies, would,  for  a  man,  his  wife,  and  two  children, 
be  about  as  follows:  rent  for  one  room,  two  dollars 
a  year;  decent  clothing,  made  by  the  wife,  twelve 
dollars  a  year;  food,  cooked  by  the  wife,  thirty-six 
dollars  a  year.  As  the  wages  of  a  labouring  man 
on  a  farm,  in  porterage,  or  in  any  work  below  that 
of  an  artisan,  are  but  ten  cents  a  day,  it  would  take 
five  hundred  days'  work  to  pay  the  outlays  of  the 
year.  The  possession  of  a  bit  of  land,  or  an  income 
from  rents,  is  therefore  deemed  essential  to  the  ex- 
istence of  every  family.  An  artisan,  whose  wages 
are  twice  those  of  the  unskilled  labourer,  could 
barely  support  his  family. 

As  only  the  simplest  and  rudest  machinery  is  used 


PERSONAL   AND    HOUSEHOLD   ECONOMY.  23 

either  in  arts  or  agriculture,  the  time  required  for 
production  makes  everything  intrinsically  costly. 
The  tiny  light  given  by  a  bulrush  pith  in  a  saucer 
of  peanut  oil  costs  the  Chinese  labourer  only  one 
tenth  of  a  cent  an  hour;  but  that  represents  one 
hundredth  part  of  a  day's  earnings. 

The  food  eaten  by  the  labourer  costs  on  the  aver- 
age but  five  cents  a  day,  but  that  is  one  half  his 
day's  wage,  and  so  his  plain  boiled  rice,  salt-fish, 
and  pickled  cabbage  take  half  his  time  in  the  earn- 
ing. His  clothing,  all  woven  and  made  by  hand, 
costs  him  only  six  dollars  a  year,  but  that  is  sixty 
days'  wages.  The  farmer's  floorless  and  ceilingless 
house  can  be  built  for  -three  hundred  dollars,  but 
this  is  as  much  as  he  could  earn  in  ten  years. 

He  is  saved  from  extinction  by  making  the  utmost 
possible  use  of  his  material;  he  is  saved  from  envy, 
by  being  as  well  off  as  his  neighbours.  He  suffers 
because  he  never  invents,  and  he  is  lonely  because  he 
always  works  for  personal  and  not  general  good. 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND   USAGES. 

THE  Great  Pure  Dynasty,  founded  in  1644,  when 
the  Tartars  for  the  second  time  took  possession  of 
the  throne  of  the  Middle  Kingdom,  has  from  that 
time  to  the  present  maintained  a  consistent  internal 
policy,  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  emperor  is 
the  Son  of  Heaven  and  the  Father  of  his  people. 
The  Penal  Code  is  comprehensible  only  when  the 
inquirer  understands  that,  under  the  Mongolian  sys- 
tem of  government,  seniors-  are  held  to  account  for 
the  doings  of  juniors.  A  parent  is  publicly  re- 
warded for  the  public  services  of  his  son;  or  he 
may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  beheaded  for  his  grand- 
son's crime.  The  elders  of  a  village  may  have  their 
houses  burned,  by  direction  of  a  magistrate,  if  they 

fail    to    put    into    the    hands    of    the    constables   an 

24 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND   USAGES.  25 

offender  belonging  to  their  clan.  Officers  are  con- 
sidered responsible  for  the  behaviour  of  those  under 
their  jurisdiction;  and  throughout  all  ranks  and 
relationships  the  recognition  of  the  solidarity  of  the 
family  and  clan  is  held  to  be  the  foundation  of 
good  order.  So  interlinked  and  reticulated  are  the 
threads  that  make  the  web  of  Chinese  life,  that,  if 
one  thread  be  broken,  the  rent  must  finally  extend 
throughout  the  fabric. 

Women  are  the  chattels  of  their  elders,  male  and 
female.  For  no  woman  is  there  an  honourable 
career  outside  of  domestic  life.  To  be  killed  or  to 
be  married  is  the  universal  female  fate.  As  a  help- 
meet and  a  producer  of  sons,  she  has  in  her  youth 
a  commercial  value,  and  the  law  deals  with  her 
as  property  belonging  to  her  seniors  in  her  own  fam- 
ily before  marriage,  and  to  her  seniors  in  her  hus- 
band's family  after  marriage. 

The  law  requiring  a  marriage  to  be  explained 
before  contraction,  so  as  to  be  clearly  understood  by 


26  A    CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

the  two  families  interested,  is  commonly  violated. 
Oppressive  upon  women  as  are  the  marriage  laws, 
the  common  practices  are  still  harsher;  for  if  decep- 
tion be  used  by  the  go-between,  the  matrimonial 
agent  employed  to  negotiate  the  marriage,  there  is 
no  redress  except  through  a  law-suit,  which  is  sure 
to  be  won  by  the  litigant  who  can  offer  the  magis- 
trate the  highest  bribe.  I  have  known  a  girl  to  be, 
unknown  to  herself  and  to  her  parents,  legally 
bound,  beyond  help  or  recall,  to  a  maniac;  and  I 
have  known  a  girl,  declared  by  the  go-between  to 
be  sound  and  fair,  to  be  discovered  by  her  waiting 
mother-in-law  and  husband  to  be  incurably  maimed. 
Greed  of  lucre,  and  misjudgment  as  to  what  consti- 
tutes well-being,  produce  conjugal  misery.  There  is 
redress  for  the  man,  soon  after  marriage,  if  he  deter- 
mines to  put  away  his  wife;  but  there  is  none  for 
the  woman,  save  by  death.  After  a  girl  is  regu- 
larly affianced,  by  the  acceptance,  through  her  par- 
ents or  guardian,  of  the  betrothal  presents,  if  her 


L 


A    PROPOSAL    OF    MARRIAOE 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND   USAGES.  27 

family  repent  and  refuse  to  execute  the  marriage 
contract,  then  the  person  amongst  them  who  had 
authority  to  give  the  girl  away,  is  punished  with 
fifty  blows,  and  the  marriage  is  completed.  Although 
the  marriage  contract  should  not  have  been  drawn 
up  in  writing,  the  acceptance  of  the  presents  is  con- 
sidered sufficient  evidence  of  agreement  between  the 
parties. 

If,  after  the  girl  is  affianced,  but  previous  to  the 
completion  of  the  marriage,  her  family  promises  her 
in  marriage  to  another,  the  person  having  authority 
to  give  her  away  is  punished  with  seventy  blows,  and 
the  original  contract  is  fulfilled.  If  the  person  who 
accepts  such  a  promise  is  aware  of  the  existence  of  a 
previous  contract,  he  must  participate  equally  in  the 
punishment,  and  forfeit  to  the  government  whatever 
betrothal  presents  he  may  have  transmitted  to  the 
girl's  family.  If  ignorant  of  the  previous  contract, 
he  is  not  *  punished,  and  the  betrothal  presents  are 
restored  to  him. 


28  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

In  case  the  family  of  the  bridegroom  repents  the 
contract,  the  same  punishments  are  inflicted  as  in 
the  case  aforementioned. 

A  Chinaman  can  have  but  one  principal  wife, 
though  he  may  take  any  number  of  inferior  wives  or 
concubines.  The  penalty  for  attempting  to  degrade 
the  chief  wife  to  the  position  of  an  inferior  wife, 
or  of  raising  an  inferior  wife  to  the  condition  of  a 
chief  wife  during  the  lifetime  of  the  latter,  is  pun- 
ished with  a  hundred  blows,  which  must  be  followed 
by  the  restoration  of  each  wife  to  her  original  rank. 
Any  man  who,  having  a  chief  wife,  enters  into  a 
contract  of  marriage  with  another  woman,  is  pun- 
ished with  ninety  blows,  the  marriage  considered 
null  and  void,  and  the  woman  returned  to  her 
parents. 

Poor  men,  and  men  of  the  middle  classes,  rarely 
have  more  than  one  wife,  because  of  the  cost  of  a 
large  household,  and  the  objections  usually  made  by 
a  chief  wife  to  the  taking  of  concubines.  Even 


MARRIAGE  LAWS  AND  USAGES.  29 

when  no  children  are  born  to  the  first  wife,  attempts 
are  usually  made  to  obtain  these  in  some  other  way 
than  by  the  taking  of  an  inferior  wife.  As  adopted 
children  stand  in  precisely  the  same  legal  relation- 
ship to  their  adopted  parents  as  do  own  children  to 
their  progenitors,  and  as  the  adoption  of  children  is 
usually  feasible,  those  who  have  no  children  gener- 
ally supply  themselves  with  posterity  by  the  expen- 
diture of  a  few  scores  of  dollars  in  the  purchase  of  a 
young  son.  Polygamy  is,  however,  common  among 
the  wealthy  and  in  families  of  rank.  The  chief  wife 
is  always  a  woman  with  dwarfed  feet,  while  the  in- 
ferior wives  are  usually  natural-footed.  The  chief 
wife  is  wedded  with  elaborate  formalities,  while  the 
concubines  are  taken  without  other  ceremony  than 
the  transfer  of  a  sum  of  money  to  their  parents. 
The  children  of  concubines  are  reckoned  as  the  issue 
of  the  wife;  they  call  her  mother,  and  after  her 
death  make  at  her  grave  the  same  offerings  that  they 
make  at  their  father's  tomb.  The  children  of  the 


30  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

chief  wife  do  not  address  a  concubine  as  mother,  nor 
do  they  ever  make  offerings  at  her  grave. 

Persons  having  the  same  surname  may  not  marry, 
though  there  be  no  blood  relationship  between  them. 
This  law  doubtless  conduces  greatly  to  the  homoge- 
neity of  the  nation.  Local  attachments  being  strong, 
and  clan  feuds  frequent,  there  would  be  permanent 
division  between  clans  were  there  no  necessity  for 
going  beyond  the  bounds  of  one's  tribe  to  get  a 
wife.  Parents  are  averse,  however,  to  having  their 
daughters  go  very  far  from  them,  and  sometimes 
official  effort  is  made  to  prevent  girls  being  married 
into  distant  families.  Occasionally  a  magistrate 
issues  a  proclamation  forbidding  the  betrothal  of 
girls  dwelling  within  his  district  to  men  who  live 
beyond  its  boundaries.  He  thus  prevents  marriage- 
able maidens,  made  scarce  through  the  practice  of 
female  infanticide,  from  being  disposed  of  to  the 
highest  bidders,  and  keeps  them  for  the  populating 
of  the  region  under  his  jurisdiction. 


MARRIAGE  LAWS   AND   USAGES.  31 

In  general,  all  marriages  between  persons  related 
to  each  other  within  remote  degrees  are  punishable, 
being  reckoned  incestuous.  A  marriage  with  the 
widow  of  any  male  relative,  however  remote,  is  ille- 
gal, and  punishable  with  a  hundred  blows.  "Who- 
ever marries  his  brother's  widow  shall  be  strangled," 
saith  the  code.  One  may  perceive  how  much  law  and 
custom  have  to  do  in  the  production  of  moral  senti- 
ment, if  he  observe  the  horror  exhibited  by  a  Chi- 
nese woman  on  being  told  that  there  are  nations  in 
which  a  man  may  marry  his  deceased  brother's  wife. 
Her  disgust  would  be  no  more  than  equalled  by  that 
of  an  American  woman  told  of  a  people  among 
whom  it  was  not  unusual  for  men  to  marry  their 
granddaughters.  The  only  legal  termination  of  a 
betrothal  is  in  marriage.  After  marriage,  the  law 
gives  a  man  almost  limitless  power  over  his  wife. 
If  he  kills  her,  or  if  she  is  so  treated  in  his  family 
as  to  cause  her  to  kill  herself,  then  her  own  rela- 
tives may  make  requisition  for  her  life;  but  on 


32  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

account  of  any  suffering  less  than  that  of  death,  the 
members  of  her  own  family  are  not  expected  to  in- 
terfere. The  law  gives  the  wife  no  right  to  leave 
her  husband  under  any  circumstances ;  but  it  permits 
the  husband  to  divorce  his  wife  for  any  of  "  the 
seven  justifying  causes " ;  namely,  for  barrenness, 
lasciviousness,  disregard  of  her  husband's  parents, 
talkativeness,  thievish  propensities,  envious  and  sus- 
picious temper,  and  inveterate  infirmity.  None  of 
these  seven  causes  will,  however,  justify  a  divorce 
if  the  wife  has  mourned  three  years  for  her  hus- 
band's parents,  if  the  family  has  become  rich  since 
the  time  of  her  marriage,  or  if  she  has  no  parents 
living  to  receive  her  back  again. 

If  the  wife  be  guilty  of  adultery,  the  law  not 
only  authorizes,  but  requires,  that  she  shall  be 
divorced,  and  that  the  husband  shall  receive  a  pun- 
ishment of  eighty  blows  if  he  retains  her. 

The  usual  way  of  disposing  of  an  obstreperous 
daughter-in-law,  or  of  a  wife  who  appears  to  have 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND  USAGES.  33 

brought  ill-luck  to  the  house,  is  to  sell  her  in  mar- 
riage to  some  other  man.  No  matter  how  old  a 
woman  may  be,  nor  how  many  times  she  may  have 
been  married,  she  can  make  no  legal  marriage  ex- 
cept she  be  given  away  by  an  authorized  person  in 
the  family  to  which  she  legally  belongs.  In  law, 
she  is  always  a  minor. 

The  few  American  ladies  who  have  married  edu- 
cated Chinamen  can  hardly  have  given  due  consid- 
eration to  the  fact  that,  in  law,  every  married 
woman  takes  the  nationality  of  her  husband;  and 
that,  as  a  Chinese  woman,  she  is  unable  to  hold 
property,  is  subject  to  the  dominion  of  her  husband's 
chief  wife,  is  bound  to  serve  his  parents,  and  must 
worship  his  departed  ancestors. 

Sexual  selection,  which  has  doubtless  greatly  in- 
fluenced the  development  and  advancement  of  certain 
races,  has  been  inoperative  in  China  during  many 
centuries,  because,  under  the  prevailing  usages,  the 
contracting  parties  have,  before  espousal,  no  oppor- 


34  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

tunity  to  judge  of  the  strength,  beauty,  or  intelli- 
gence of  their  consorts.  Romantic  love  has  no  part 
in  marriage  or  its  issue.  This  may  be  one  of  the 
causes  of  China's  arrested  civilization,  and  of  the 
astonishing  fact  that  her  astute  people  have  invented 
nothing  and  discovered  nothing  during  hundreds  of 
years. 

Marriage  being  essential  to  the  continuance  of  the 
line  of  worshippers  before  the  lares  and  penates,  a 
man  who  will  not  marry  is  reckoned  guilty  of  filial 
impiety.  Spinsters  are  unknown,  and  bachelors  are 
few.  The  universal  and  intense  desire  for  posterity 
in  the  male  line  of  descent  leads  to  much  self- 
sacrifice  on  the  part  of  parents,  in  order  to  secure 
wives  for  sons,  and  causes  them  to  make  provident 
arrangements  for  their  marriage  at  an  early  age. 
Betrothals  of  expected  infants,  conditional  upon  their 
being  of  different  sexes,  are  not  rare.  Among  the 
poor  it  is  not  uncommon  for  a  newly  born  daughter 
to  be  given  away,  that  a  girl  of  another  clan  may 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND    USAGES.  35 

be  taken  by  the  mother,  reared  at  her  breast,  and 
bestowed  upon  her  son  in  after  years.  In  many 
families  there  is  at  least  one  little  daughter-in-law 
being  brought  up  in  the  house  of  her  future  husband. 
Parents  of  moderate  means  endeavour  to  provide 
wives  for  their  sons  by  the  time  they  are  twenty 
years  old,  while  but  few  keep  a  daughter  after  she 
is  sixteen.  Those  who  have  a  marriageable  son,  and 
the  means  of  meeting  the  expense  of  taking  a 
daughter-in-law,  place  their  case  in  the  hands  of  an 
old  female  friend,  who  finds  among  her  acquaint- 
ances that  which  is  required  by  her  client.  The 
parents  of  the  two  young  people  do  not  meet  for  con- 
ference, and  are  not  usually  known  to  each  other  even 
by  name.  The  negotiation  is  conducted  by  the  go- 
between,  who  is  the  sole  medium  of  communication 
between  the  two  families.  When  all  details  have 
been  settled,  and  a  sum  of  money  carried  from  the 
parents  of  the  groom  to  those  of  the  bride,  the  be- 
trothal is  completed. 


36  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

When  the  bride  knows  that  she  is  to  be  married, 
she  must  evince  by  word  and  manner  the  deepest 
melancholy,  and  she  gains  commendation  and  repute 
if  her  lamentations  are  poetical.  An  acquaintance 
of  mine,  who  was  spoken  of  with  approval,  always, 
from  the  time  of  her  betrothal  to  that  of  her  mar- 
riage, referred  to  the  latter  as  to  her  funeral.  To 
her  little  brother  —  the  only  member  of  a  bride's 
family  that  may  before  the  birth  of  her  first  child 
visit  her  in  her  husband's  house  —  she  said,  "When 
I  am  buried,  you  must  come  frequently  to  burn 
incense  at  my  grave."  To  her  elder  brothers  and 
to  her  sister-in-law  she  said,  "After  I  am  dead,  do 
not  kill  the  lizards  and  the  centipedes  that  may  crawl 
about  the  house,  for  it  may  be  that  my  spirit  will 
come  back  and  dwell  in  the  vermin  about  my  home 
rather  than  abide  in  the  grave  into  which  I  shall 
have  been  put."  A  gifted  girl  makes  many  such 
allusions  without  instruction,  while  the  stupid  have 
to  be  privatel}7  taught  what  to  say  when  they  wail 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND   USAGES.  37 

their  adieus  to  maiden  life.  How  much  of  a  girl's 
distress  is  real  and  how  much  of  it  is  piously 
feigned  can  be  guessed  only  by  those  who  under- 
stand how  deeply  Chinese  character  is  affected  by 
Chinese  customs. 

The  vexations  of  a  betrothal  and  a  wedding  are 
so  great  as  to  have  given  rise  to  the  proverb, 
"Don't  say  you  have  had  trouble  until  you  shall 
have  married  off  a  daughter  or  brought  home  a 
daughter-in-law."  The  sum  of  money  paid  to  the 
bride's  parents  is  usually  spent  upon  her  marriage 
outfit.  The  smallest  dowry  is  a  feAV  suits  of  new 
clothing.  The  wealthy  give  hundreds  of  garments, 
and  sometimes  one  or  two  bondmaids,  with  a  field 
that  reverts  to  the  bride's  family  upon  her  decease. 

The  bride  is  carried  from  her  father's  house  to 
that  of  her  father-in-law  in  a  sedan-chair  that  is 
carefully  closed  and  covered  with  scarlet.  She  is 
accompanied  by  none  of  her  own  family.  The  go- 
betweens  and  a  messenger  from  the  house  of  the 


38  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

groom  direct  the  bearers  who  carry  her  trousseau  with 
her  in  a  procession  along  the  streets. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  wedding,  the  bride 
is  bathed  in  water  in  which  twelve  kinds  of  flowers 
have  been  steeped;  has  her  hair  stiffened  with  ban- 
doline and  wrought  into  a  marvellous  coiffure  with 
many  golden  aigrettes;  is  attired  in  gorgeous  ap- 
parel, which  she  puts  on  with  an  appearance  of 
bitter  unwillingness,  and  enters  the  red  sedan-chair, 
weeping  loudly.  The  marriage  procession  is  headed 
by  a  man  carrying  a  branch  of  a  banyan-tree,  whose 
local  name  is  identical  in  sound  with  another  word 
which  means  completed  or  perfected.  It  signifies  the 
fact  that  all  that  is  necessary  to  legal  matrimony 
has  been  done  in  this  case.  This  leader  is  followed 
by  two  men,  each  bearing  a  lantern  on  a  stalk  of 
sugar-cane,  the  former  being  a  part  of  the  bride's 
outfit,  and  the  latter,  rising  stage  by  stage  to  a 
climax  broad  and  flourishing,  symbolizing  the  hope 
that  the  bride's  life  may  likewise  widen  out.  The 


THE    DEPARTURE    OF    THE    BRIDE 


MARKIAGE   LAWS   AND    USAGES.  39 

next  in  the  file  is  a  man  carrying  over  his  shoulder 
a  bamboo,  the  emblem  of  rapid  increase,  having  a 
red  bundle  of  foot-gear  on  one  end  of  it,  and  a  red 
coverlet  on  the  other.  After  him  come  as  many 
burden-bearers  as  are  necessary  to  carry  all  the  red 
boxes  containing  the  trousseau. 

On  arriving  at  the  door  of  the  house,  the  bride 
sees  her  husband  for  the  first  time,  and  recognizes 
him,  among  those  who  await  her,  by  his  rich  attire. 
By  previous  arrangement,  she  is  first  greeted  by 
some  woman  reckoned  lucky  and  prosperous,  in  the 
hope  that  she  will  be  like  the  one  who  gives  her 
earliest  welcome  in  her  new  home.  A  mistress  of 
ceremonies  who  has  been  engaged  to  see  that  during 
three  days  all  is  done  according  to  established  usage, 
throws  upon  the  door-sill  some  burning  straw,  half 
extinguishes  it,  and  leads  the  new-comer  across  it, 

saying:  — 

Now,  fair  young  bride,  the  smoke  bestride ; 
This  year  have  joy,  next  year  a  boy. 


40  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

This  rite  is  supposed  to  disinfect  the  bride  from 
any  evil  influence  to  which'  she  may  have  been  sub- 
jected by  demons  or  white  tigers  along  her  route. 
She  then  immediately  enters  the  room  in  which  her 
red  bedstead  has  been  set  up,  and  in  which  her 
possessions  are  all  deposited.  There  she  sits  silent 
all  the  rest  of  the  day,  among  her  red  boxes,  no 
one  speaking  to  her,  nor  noticing  her  in  any  way 
except  by  bringing  her  food.  A  feast  is  spread  in 
the  evening  for  male  friends,  who  have  been  invited 
by  card,  and  its  preparation  occupies  the  whole 
household.  After  the  supper,  the  guests  are  per- 
mitted to  see  the  bride,  who  is  brought  forward  by 
the  duenna  toward  the  door  of  the  bedroom.  In 
some  cases  only  those  who  can  offer  a  felicitous 
stanza  are  allowed  to  approach  the  bedroom  door, 
and  there  is  much  rivalry  in  the  composition  of 
poetry  to  be  recited.  The  stanzas  usually  contain 
allusions  to  posterity,  as  in  the  following  transla- 
tions from  the  vernacular :  — 


MARRIAGE   LAWS   AND    USAGES.  41 

The  bride  is  high-browed,  fair  and  sweet ; 
Like  awls  her  small  and  sharp-toed  feet. 
Brought  home  this  year  with  honours  meet, 
Next  year  an  infant  son  she'll  greet. 

Fresh  twigs  upon  the  pine,  new  sprouts  on  the  bamboo ; 

The  groom  brings  home  the  bride  to  rule  his  house :  his  field 
To  her  a  thousand-fold  its  annual  crop  shall  yield, 

And  she  will  be  a  mother-in-law  at  thirty-two. 

Practical  jokes  usually  accompany  the  entertain- 
ment. Sometimes  a  guest  enters,  disguised  as  an 
aged  man,  and  after  persuading  the  duenna  to  bring 
the  bride  close  to  him  by  a  plea  that  his  sight  is 
very  dim,  he  suddenly  tosses  off  his  cap  and  spec- 
tacles and  appears  as  a  hilarious  youth.  This  creates 
much  merriment.  Another  popular  joke  is  to  leave 
a  bundle  of  fire-crackers  under  the  bedstead,  with  a 
slow  match  so  placed  as  to  explode  them  after  mid- 
night,  and  this  is  often  accompanied  by  an  artificial 
shower  falling  through  the  roof  upon  the  bridal 
couch.  When  the  guests  depart,  they  frequently 
carry  with  them  articles  which  they  know  the  groom 


42  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

will  require  next  day,  and  which  he  is  bound  to 
redeem  from  them  with  packages  of  confectionery. 
It  is  said  that  a  merry  company  of  the  fellow- 
students  of  a  groom  decoyed  him  from  his  house 
after  his  wedding-supper,  and  fastened  him  to  a  tree 
in  a  copse,  so  that  he  should  not  be  able  to  return 
home  that  night.  His  parents  finally  induced  them 
to  go  to  release  him,  but  whe*h  they  arrived  at  the 
copse,  they  found  he  had  been  eaten  by  a  tiger.  To 
avoid  probable  discomforts,  the  groom  sometimes 
conceals  himself  from  supper-time  until  after  the 
departure  of  all  the  guests.  The  fate  of  Ginevra 
would  be  possible  to  a  Chinese  groom,  but  not  to  a 
Chinese  bride. 

On  the  second  day  the  young  pair  worship  the 
images  of  the  ancestors  in  the  main  room  of  the 
house,  and  make  obeisance  to  each  of  the  senior 
members  of  the  family.  In  the  afternoon  the  last 
presents  are  sent  off  from  the  groom's  family  to  the 
bride's  parents.  They  include  pork,  fish,  cakes,  and 


MARRIAGE  LAWS   AND    USAGES.  43 

confectionery,  according  with  the  amount  stipulated 
at  the  time  of  betrothal.  During  the  second  and 
third  days  all  who  choose  may  enter  the  house  and 
view  the  bride,  and  the  crowd  of  spectators  is  some- 
times large.  They  say:  — 

We  look  at  the  new,  and  not  at  the  old ; 
We  all  have,  at  home,  old  things  to  behold. 

The  third  day  is  a  busy  one  for  the  bride,  as  she 
must  then  formally  begin  her  domestic  duties. 
Early  in  the  morning  she  washes  clothes  for  herself 
and  her  husband,  under  the  direction  of  the  duenna. 
Then  this  mistress  of  ceremonies  takes  her  hand, 
holds  it  upon  the  long  handle  of  a  ladle,  and  stirs 
up  the  food  in  a  jar,  from  which  she  is  to  feed  and 
fatten  pigs.  She  meanwhile  recites  a  rhyme,  of 
which  this  is  a  close  version :  — 

Stir  up  the  swill,  make  the  jar  fume ; 

Raise  hogs  that  are  bigger  than  cows. 
Stir  deep  and  long,  stir  into  spume ; 

Give  thousand-weight  swine  to  your  spouse. 


44  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

At  noonday  the  bride  cooks  the  family  dinner, 
under  the  superintendence  of  her  mother-in-law. 
In  the  intervals  between  other  occupations  she 
begins  and  completes  the  making  of  a  pair  of  trou- 
sers for  her  husband.  On  no  account  must  she  be 
assisted  in  this  task,  nor  fail  to  accomplish  it  before 
the  time  for  cooking  the  evening  meal,  else  bad 
luck  may  follow  all  her  subsequent  career.  Some 
time  during  the  forenoon  of  this  third  day  a  messen- 
ger from  her  mother,  usually  her  younger  brother, 
brings  her  a  bottle  of  hair-oil,  takes  dinner  with  her 
husband,  and  returns  home  accompanied  by  the 
duenna,  who  has  then  finished  her  duties. 

On  the  fourth  day  the  bride  must  rise  long  be- 
fore daylight  to  dress  her  hair  in  the  complex  style 
of  a  married  woman,  and,  as  she  is  unaccustomed 
to  performing  this  difficult  work  alone,  she  may  suc- 
ceed only  after  many  trials.  She  this  day  lays  aside 
her  finery,  and  takes  up  all  the  occupations  of  a 
daughter-in-law,  serving  her  elders  in  various  ways, 
and  doing  the  hardest  of  the  housework. 


MARRIAGE  LAWS   AND  USAGES.  45 

If  she  hates  her  husband,  and  cares  little  for  the 
comfort  of  her  parents,  she  may  waste  food,  break 
dishes,  threaten  suicide,  and  make  herself  so  disa- 
greeable that  the  family  she  has  entered  will  soon 
consider  the  expediency  of  marrying  her  off  into 
another  household.  If  she  desires  to  remain  where 
she  is,  she  strives  to  please  her  mother-in-law.  A 
husband  who  takes  the  part  of  his  wife  against  his 
mother  is  reckoned  unfilial,  and  has  little  peace  in 
the  home  of  his  ancestors.  If  he  takes  the  part  of 
his  mother  against  his  wife,  the  wife  may  be  driven 
to  suicide,  and  this  would  furnish  opportunity  for 
her  family  to  make  an  inquisition  financially  ruin- 
ous to  him.  The  mother  and  the  wife,  each  jealous 
of  the  man's  devotion,  are  the  members  of  the 
family  who  are  most  likely  to  be  unfriendly  to  each 
other.  The  existence  of  countless  families  in  which 
three  or  four  generations  of  both  sexes  live  in  ap- 
parent amity  under  one  roof  proves  that  the  Chinese 
have  great  power  of  self -repression. 


46  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

At  the  end  of  a  month  the  bride's  mother  sends 
her  a  basket  of  artificial  flowers,  that  she  may  make 
acceptable  presents  to  her  young  neighbours.  No 
bonnets  nor  other  head-coverings  are  used  by  youthful 
ladies  in  China,  and  flowers  are  worn  in  the  hair 
on  all  festive  occasions. 

At  the  end  of  four  months,  on  a  day  selected  as 
lucky  by  a  wizard,  the  bride  goes  to  pay  her  first 
visit  to  her  mother,  unless  some  event  has  made  it 
•  mystically  unsafe  for  her  to  leave  her  present  domi- 
cile or  to  enter  her  old  one.  The  length  of  the 
bride's*  stay  in  her  former  home  varies  in  different 
villages.  In  some  she  remains  a  month  in  her 
mother's  house,  and  in  others  it  is  considered  very 
unlucky  if  she  does  not  return  the  same  dajr,  before 
the  smoke  from  the  village  chimneys  indicates  that 
supper  is  being  cooked.  But  any  circumstance  that 
renders  either  of  the  families  ceremonially  unclean, 
and  therefore  unpropitious  to  luck,  prevents  the 
bride  from  having  this  outing.  Uncleanliness  is  of 


MAKRIAGE   LAWS   AND    USAGES.  47 

two  sorts  —  that  which  results  from  a  death,  and  that 
which  follows  the  birth  of  a  child. 

They  are  distinguished  as  that  of  bad  fortune  and 
that  of  good  fortune,  the  former  continuing  three 
years,  and  the  latter  one  month.  Were  the  bride  to 
approach  any  unclean  person,  she  would  herself  incur 
the  danger  of  becoming  an  occult  cause  of  calamity 
among  her  relatives.  During  the  first  few  months 
after  marriage  she  must  carefully  guard  against  ex- 
posure to  any  influence  adverse  to  good  luck. 

A  neighbour  of  a  Chinese  friend  of  mine  had  one 
daughter,  an  only  child,  of  whom  she  was  passion- 
ately fond.  The  girl  was  married  off  when  sixteen 
years  old.  When  the  first  four  months  were  nearly 
past,  her  mother's  neighbour  died,  and  her  visit  to 
her  old  home  had  therefore  to  be  delayed  for  a  hun- 
dred days.  Before  this  period  of  the  neighbour's 
daily  worship  of  the  manes  had  passed,  the  bride's 
mother-in-law  died,  and  she  had  to  go  into  mourn- 
ing for  three  years.  Just  before  she  put  off  mourn- 


48  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

ing,  she  bore  a  son,  and  that  made  it  necessary  for 
her  to  again  delay  her  first  visit  to  her  mother's 
house.  Her  mother,  meanwhile,  became  subject  to 
hallucinations,  under  which  she  frequently  saw  her 
child  entering  her  door.  She  said  she  could  dis- 
tinctly perceive  her  face,  could  discern  every  detail 
in  her  dress,  and  could  hear  the  jingle  of  her 
bangles.  She  would  exclaim,  "O  my  child,  you 
have  come!"  but,  when  she  clasped  the  vision,  she 
found  only  empty  air  in  her  arms.  At  last  the 
daughter,  who  had  all  these  years  been  but  two 
miles  away,  really  came  to  visit  her  mother.  The 
two  embraced  each  other  and  wept  aloud;  and  there- 
after the  mother's  hallucinations  ceased. 

After  the  first  visit,  a  married  daughter  may  go 
to  the  home  of  her  parents  at  any  time,  and  they, 
after  the  birth  of  her  first  child,  may  occasionally 
go  to  see  her  in  her  husband's  house. 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS. 

WHEN  the  Chinese  wish  to  declare  the  extreme 
vexatiousness  of  any  piece  of  work,  they  say,  "It 
is  more  trouble  than  a  funeral";  the  obsequies  of 
a  parent  being  reckoned  the  most  maddening  affair 
in  human  experience. 

Infants  are  buried  summarily,  without  coffins,  and 
the  young  are  interred  with  few  rites ;  but  the  fune- 
rals of  the  aged,  of  both  sexes,  are  elaborate  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  the  descendants  and  to 
their  wealth.  When  a  childless  married  man  dies, 
his  widow  may  perform  all  the  duties  of  a  son 
toward  him,  may  remain  in  his  house,  and  may 
adopt  children  to  rear  as  his  heirs  and  as  worship- 
pers of  the  family  manes.  If  his  widow  purposes 
marrying  again,  a  young  male  relative  may,  with 

49 


50  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

the  consent  of  senior  members  of  the  clan,  undertake 
the  services  expected  from  a  son,  and  may  inherit  the 
estate  of  the  deceased. 

When  one  is  about  to  die,  he  is  removed  from 
his  couch  to  a  bench  or  to  a  mat  on  the  floor,  be- 
cause of  a  belief  that  he  who  dies  in  bed  will  cany 
the  bedstead  as  a  burden  into  the  other  world.  He 
is  washed  in  a  new  pot,  in  warm  water  in  which  a 
bundle  of  incense-sticks  is  merged.  After  the  wash- 
ing, the  pot  and  the  water  are  thrown  away  to- 
gether. He  is  then  arrayed  in  a  full  suit  of  new 
clothing,  that  he  may  appear  in  Hades  at  his  best. 
He  breathes  his  last  in  the  main  room,  before  the 
largest  door  of  the  house,  that  the  departing  soul 
may  easily  find  its  way  out  into  the  air.  A  sheet 
of  spirit-money,  brown  paper  having  a  patch  of  gild- 
ing on  one  surface,  is  laid  over  the  upturned  face, 
because  it  is  said  that,  if  the  eyes  are  left  uncov- 
ered, the  corpse  may  count  the  rows  of  tiles  in  the 
roof,  and  that  in  such  case  the  family  could  never 
build  a  more  spacious  domicile. 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  51 

The  sons  unbraid  their  queues,  and  by  this  di- 
shevelment  indicate  the  confusion  of  the  household. 
They  also  take  off  their  tunics,  turn  one  half  side- 
wise  over  the  other  half,  and  put  them  on  again  in 
such  a  way  as  to  clothe  only  a  moiety  of  the  body. 
The  left  shoulder  is  made  bare  if  it  be  the  father, 
and  the  right  shoulder  if  it  be  the  mother,  who  has 
died.  Thus  the  son  shows  that  he  is  denuded  of 
his  usual  protection,  on  the  one  hand  or  the  other, 
the  left  ranking  above  the  right  in  Chinese  eti- 
quette. If  he  be  orphaned,  he  goes  naked  to  the 
waist  in  any  weather.  He  also  girds  himself  with 
a  wadded  garment  twisted  into  a  rope.  This  cum- 
brous girdle  expresses  the  fact  that  he  has  been 
obliged  to  hastily  brace  himself  for  the  arduous 
labours  that  have  come  upon  him  through  bereave- 
ment. 

Messengers  go  to  inform  all  his  kindred  of  the 
demise,  and  an  elderly  man,  of  the  same  surname 
as  the  deceased,  dressed  in  sackcloth  and  followed 


52  A  COENER   OF  CATHAY. 

by  the  eldest  son,  takes  a  new  earthen  saucepan,  goes 
to  a  running  stream,  throws  three  sheets  of  spirit- 
money  upon  it,  and,  dipping  in  the  direction  of  the 
current,  takes  water  with  which  to  cleanse  the  corpse. 
A  sprig  of  bamboo  or  of  banyan  is  inserted  in  the 
snout  of  the  saucepan,  the  bamboo  with  its  straight, 
evenly-jointed  stem  being  the  type  of  paternal  rule, 
and  the  banyan,  with  its  unfading  verdure,  being 
the  symbol  of  maternal  affection.  While  the  son  is 
gone  to  buy  the  water  of  purification,  the  relatives 
assemble  in  the  house,  and,  when  his  return  is  an- 
nounced by  his  moans,  they  burst  out  simultaneously 
into  a  loud  wail,  each  naming  the  relationship  of 
the  deceased  to  himself.  It  is  thought  that  the  son 
may  be  comforted  by  this  indirect  reminder  that 
his  parent  had  many  friends  who  share  the  grief  of 
the  nearest  of  kin.  The  corpse  is  sprinkled  with  the 
water  shaken  from  a  branch  of  pomegranate,  the 
many-seeded  emblem  of  increase,  and  it  is  then 
ready  for  encoffining.  Two  paper  images,  one  of  a 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  53 

man,  the  other  of  a  maid-servant,  are  bought  and 
placed  beside  the  body.  A  son  puts  some  boiled 
rice  in  the  mouth  of  the  corpse,  saying,  "You  fed 
me  while  I  grew,  I  feed  you  when  you  are  dead," 
and  then  commands  the  two  images  to  obey  the  be- 
hests of  the  departed  and  to  run  on  all  errands  as 
directed  by  him.  The  images  stand  rigid  before  any 
number  of  prostrations  made  by  the  mourners,  but 
are  blown  down  by  a  breath  of  wind.  They  perhaps 
inspire  the  general  feeling  of  superstitious  aversion 
against  being  fanned  by  another,  and  originate  the 
common  polite  inhibition,  "I  would  receive  a  hun- 
dred obeisances  from  you  sooner  than  one  puff  of  air 
from  your  fan." 

The  male  relatives  then  go  in  a  body  to  the  tem- 
ple of  the  local  tutelary  deity,  and  announce  the 
death.  Thejr  carry  lighted  lanterns,  because  the 
daytime  of  men  is  the  night  of  gods  and  spirits. 
The  bell  is  tolled,  the  eldest  son  prostrates  himself 
before  the  shrine  as  many  times  as  will  correctly 


54  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

indicate  the  years  of  the  departed,  and  gives  the 
sad  information  of  his  decease.  They  then  return 
to  the  house  of  mourning,  and  some  one  goes  to  a 
soothsayer  to  ascertain  what  time  will  be  lucky  for 
the  encoffining  of  the  corpse.  The  natal  dates,  recorded 
for  every  member  of  the  family,  must  be  laid  before 
the  soothsayer,  and  some  moment  must  be  chosen 
whose  signs  are  geomantically  in  accord  with  those 
of  the  birthdays  and  hours  of  the  living,  else  evil 
will  accrue  to  any  whose  horoscope  conflicts.  To 
lay  the  dead  in  the  coffin  without  regard  to  the 
birth-times  of  those  who  assist  would  endanger  life 
needlessly.  Some  propitious  hour,  during  the  first, 
second,  or  third  day,  is  usually  discovered  and  fixed 
upon.  This  time  having  arrived,  the  clothes  of  the 
deceased,  or  new  cloth  cut  into  lengths  sufficient 
for  a  tunic,  are  distributed  among  the  assistants, 
used  as  girdles  while  the  body  is  lifted  into  the 
coffin,  and  afterward  kept  by  the  wearers. 

Thrifty   elderly  persons   have    stanch   coffins    made 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  55 

for  themselves  while  in  good  health.  These  are  kept 
in  a  loft,  receive  a  new  coat  of  lacquer  occasionally, 
and  harden  during,  perhaps,  a  score  of  years,  for  final 
use.  If  the  coffin  has  not  been  previously  prepared, 
a  son  buys  one  from  a  maker,  who  gives  the  buyer 
a  couple  of  oranges  or  a  package  of  confectionery, 
that  the  transfer  of  goods  may  not  be  an  unmixed 
sadness  to  his  customer.  Some  person,  familiar  with 
the  route,  must  guide  the  bearers  by  the  shortest 
road  to  the  house  of  the  purchaser,  for  an  empty 
coffin  imperils  the  welfare  of  the  inmates  of  any 
dwelling  to  which  it  is  taken,  and  a  mistake  in 
regard  to  its  destination  would  bring  rough  treat- 
ment to  those  who  carried  it. 

After  the  body  is  laid  in  the  coffin,  a  piece  of 
silver,  real  or  counterfeit,  is  placed  under  the  tongue. 
It  is  said  that  in  ancient  times  the  full  value  of  a 
man's  possessions  was  paid  to  him  by  his  heirs  at 
his  demise,  and  was  deposited  with  him  in  his  coffin 
for  burial.  But  later  on,  though  long  ago,  a  man 


56  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

who  had  foreknowledge,  warned  his  children  that 
there  would  be  a  rebellion  in  their  day,  and  that  a 
certain  noble  would  rifle  graves  to  get  funds  for  the 
carrying  out  of  his  treasonable  designs.  When  this 
man  died,  the  prospective  rebel  was  invited  to  assist 
in  encoffining  the  corpse,  and  the  sons  put  into  the 
coffin  only  a  small  piece  of  silver,  which  they 
slipped  under  his  tongue.  Years  passed,  and  the 
prophecy  of  the  dead  father  was  fulfilled;  but,  while 
other  graves  were  opened,  his  remained  undisturbed, 
because  the  rebel  chieftain  knew  it  contained  no 
treasure.  Since  that  time  the  practice  of  putting  a 
bit  of  silver  under  the  tongue  has  superseded  the 
older  custom  of  burying  large  sums  of  money  with 
the  corpse. 

The  evening  after  the  encoffining,  a  supper  is 
spread  for  all  the  relatives  of  other  surname  than 
that  of  the  deceased.  Those  of  the  same  surname, 
reckoning  themselves  sinners  and  therefore  in  sor- 
row, cook  and  serve  the  banquet. 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  57 

As  soon  as  the  corpse  is  encoffined,  a  screen  of 
white  cloth  is  stretched  across  the  main  room,  just 
in  front  of  the  shelf  on  which  sit  the  household 
gods,  opposite  the  front  entrance  to  the  house.  The 
coffin  stands  parallel  with  the  screen  and  close 
behind  it,  shut  off  from  the  view  of  those  who  pass 
the  open  door.  In  front  of  the  screen,  at  its  centre, 
a  chair  is  placed,  holding  an  effigy  of  the  deceased, 
and  dressed  in  his  clothing.  This  is  called  the  seat 
of  the  spirit.  Before  the  effigy  a  square  table  is 
set  as  an  altar,  and  draped  with  a  white  cover  and 
valance.  A  pair  of  large  bouquets  of  white  artificial 
flowers,  stuck  in  balls  of  clay,  are  set  upon  the 
altar,  and  the  worship  of  the  dead  then  commences. 
Many  female  relatives  stay  behind  the  screen  to 
wail.  A  child  is  appointed  to  watch  and  give 
notice  of  the  approach  of  a  worshipper,  and  at  his 
signal  the  women  wail  in  chorus.  A  male  relative 
goes  out,  receives  the  guest,  and  kneels  beside  him 
while  he  bows  and  touches  his  forehead  to  the 


58  A  CORNER   OP  CATHAY. 

ground.  The  guest  is  then  invited  into  another 
room  to  partake  of  tea,  and  the  wailing  ceases  until 
another  visitor  arrives.  Friends  of  various  surnames 
and  clans  come  during  the  first  six  days  to  pay 
obeisance  to  the  dead,  and  bring  bundles  of  spirit- 
money  to  be  burned  before  the  altar.  The  son  of 
the  recipient  of  these  posthumous  honours  returns  to 
each  a  present  of  a  few  feet  of  home-made  white 
cloth,  and  invites  all  to  the  great  performances  of 
the  seventh  day. 

The  effigy  and  altar  remain  a  hundred  days,  and 
before  them  the  near  relatives  bow  down  and  weep 
twice  a  day.  Those  who  can  wail  in  verse,  eulogiz- 
ing the  departed,  gain  much  approbation.  Every 
morning  and  evening,  so  long  as  the  coffin  is  in  the 
house,  or  for  one  hundred  days  if  the  burial  should 
be  longer  delayed,  a  daughter-in-law  puts  upon  the 
altar  a  meal  of  vegetable  food.  The  deceased  is 
supposed  to  partake  of  its  essence,  and  it  is  after- 
ward added  to  the  family  mess.  Beside  the  fare  set 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  59 

forth  for  the  dead  man,  there  is  laid  upon  the  table 
a  single  chopstick  and  an  egg  for  the  jailer  that  has 
charge  of  the  spirit  until  it  is  judged  in  Hades. 
Having  but  half  a  pair  of  chopsticks  to  use,  he 
must  needs  eat  slowly,  and  so  the  dead  man  may 
get  his  share  of  the  viands  set  forth! 

Besides  the  occupations  already  described,  the  men 
of  the  afflicted  family  must  procure  food-stuffs,  in- 
cluding pork,  geese,  and  ducks,  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  guests;  must  hire  mourning  garments,  or 
buy  cloth  for  making  them;  must  put  an  awning 
over  the  court  in  front  of  the  house,  to  enlarge  the 
space  wherein  the  priests  are  to  perform  the  cere- 
monies of  the  seventh  day;  and  must  order,  at. 
the  shops  where  outfits  for  ghosts  are  made,  all  the 
paper  paraphernalia  to  be  burned  at  the  funeral. 

The  women  must,  meanwhile,  cook  abundant 
meals  for  all  who  assist  in  the  obsequies;  must 
pound  bushels  of  rice  into  flour  for  making  steamed 
cakes  to  offer,  with  tea,  to  all  comers;  must  make 


60  A  COKNER   OF   CATHAY. 

many  little  white  bags,  and  put  into  each  two  long 
rolls  of  raw  cotton,  some  green  peas,  some  unhusked 
rice,  and  two  copper  coins,  and  must  fasten  these 
bags  upon  cords,  whereby  they  can  be  tied  around 
the  waist.  On  the  seventh  day  each  son  and  son's 
wife  wears  three  of  these  bags,  all  the  children  of 
the  sons  wear  two  bags,  and  each  married  daughter 
and  son-in-law  wears  one  bag.  Mourning  badges 
must  also  be  made:  wristlets  of  white  for  all  the 
sons,  and  wristlets  of  blue  for  all  the  grandsons. 
These  are  to  be  worn  on  the  seventh  day,  and  there- 
after until  they  drop  off  through  decay.  The  women 
must  also  make  new  red  shoes  for  themselves,  and 
cover  them  with  sackcloth,  and  must  make  new 
mourning  garments,  or  else  sew  shreds  of  white 
cotton  along  the  seams  and  edges  of  their  old 
tunics,  to  make  them  look  like  unfinished  dresses 
that  have  been  put  on  under  the  stress  of  sad  cir- 
cumstances. 

On  the  seventh  day  after  the  demise,  the  deceased 


MORTUARY  CUSTOMS.  61 

is  supposed  to  become  aware  that  he  has  departed 
this  life,  and  on  that  day  is  performed  the  ceremony 
of  accompanying  him  to  the  land  of  shades.  Priests, 
Buddhist  and  Tauist,  have  been  engaged  for  a  fixed 
sum  of  money,  with  their  entertainment  —  tobacco  to 
smoke,  tea  to  sip,  and  at  least  three  substantial 
meals.  Early  in  the  morning  the  sons  and  daughters- 
in-law  put  on  tunics  of  coarse  sackcloth.  The  sons 
wear  shoes  patched  with  linen,  a  small  or  a  large 
patch  on  the  toe  indicating  whether  one  or  both 
parents  are  dead.  They  put  on  a  tall  cap  of  sack- 
cloth having  a  wad  of  spirit-money  suspended  on 
either  side  to  dangle  over  the  ears  and  shut  out  the 
criticisms  of  relatives  who  may  be  dissatisfied  with 
their  management  of  the  funeral  rites  or  with  the 
quality  of  the  repasts  provided  for  the  assisting 
mourners. 

The  Buddhist  priests  arrive  and  hang  upon  the 
white  screen  three  pictures  of  Buddha,  which  are 
worshipped  by  the  members  of  the  bereaved  family, 


62  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

especially  by  its  women.  Water  is  heated  for  the 
deceased  to  bathe  in,  and  is  put  into  a  tub  beside 
the  coffin,  and  inclosed  by  a  new  mat.  A  paper 
towel  and  a  complete  suit  of  paper  clothing  are 
burned  beside  the  coffin  to  furnish  the  spirit  with 
suitable  attire  for  the  day's  exercises.  The  Buddhist 
priests  meanwhile  chant  an  invitation  to  make  use 
of  the  things  provided.  They  continue  to  chant  at 
intervals  during  the  day,  acting  in  concert  with  the 
Tauist  priest,  who  takes  the  lead  in  conducting  the 
spirit  to  Hades.  For  one  or  three  days  and  nights, 
according  to  the  wealth  and  faith  of  the  family,  the 
priests  continue  their  incantations,  ringing  bells, 
sprinkling  the  altar  with  holy  water  from  a  pome- 
granate-branch, and  burning  incense  whose  smoke 
fills  the  court.  A  plank  is  supported  at  its  ends  by 
two  stools,  and  represents  bridges.  The  Tauist 
priest,  followed  by  the  eldest  son  carrying  an  armful 
of  copper  coins,  and  by  all  the  rest  of  the  family  in 
file  carrying  lighted  incense-sticks,  goes  on  a  circuit 


MORTUAKY   CUSTOMS.  63 

through  the  house,  court,  or  street,  repeatedly  cross- 
ing the  mimic  bridge.  This  is  the  exponent  of  the 
long  journey  made  by  the  deceased  across  marshes, 
meadows,  streams,  and  mountains  toward  the  bourn 
from  which  no  traveller  returns.  After  many  weari- 
some circuits,  the  priest  stops  and  calls  for  the  open- 
ing of  the  gate  into  Hades.  An  assistant  responds 
that  the  gate-keeper's  fee  must  first  be  paid,  and 
the  eldest  son  throws  coins  into  the  priest's  bowl. 
After  a  turn  or  two  more,  the  call  is  repeated,  the 
invisible  door  is  opened,  and  the  spirit  is  supposed 
to  pass  in  and  to  mount  a  lofty  platform,  from  which 
it  takes  a  final  view  of  the  house  and  village  in 
which  it  has  dwelt.  The  priests  chant  its  valedic- 
tion, saying :  — 

On  the  last,  highest  lookout  now  I  stand, 

And  gaze  toward  home,  with  weeping  loud  and  sore ; 

Those  who  go  farthest  on  an  earthly  strand 

May  come  again  to  kin  and  native  land, 
But  he  who  enters  hell  returns  no  more. 


64  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

The  mourners  wail  loudly,  and  the  spirit  is  con- 
sidered to  have  departed  into  the  realm  of  shadows. 
The  party,  led  by  the  priest,  now  take  the  short  re- 
turn journey,  crossing  the  mimic  bridge  but  once; 
for  they  say :  — 

For  going,  ages  scarce  suffice ; 
The  coming  back  takes  but  a  trice. 

The  priest  then  brings  a  miniature  artificial  lotus- 
garden,  on  whose  terraces  are  images  of  the  immor- 
tals, and  sets  it  whirling  on  its  standard  over  a 
basin  of  clean  water.  The  mourners  throw  coins 
into  the  basin,  to  secure  an  abundance  of  pure  water 
for  the  use  of  the  deceased  in  the  nether  world. 
Various  arts  are  used  by  the  priest,  at  this  and 
other  stages  of  the  performance,  to  increase  the 
amount  of  cash  thrown  into  his  basin. 

At  nightfall  the  offerings  which  supply  the  dead 
with  the  necessaries  of  spirit-life  are  sent  to  him  by 
burning  them.  Silver  and  gold  coins,  clothing  of 
every  sort  and  in  many  colours,  opium  and  tobacco- 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  65 

pipes,  spectacles,  wallets,  boxes,  horses,  sedan-chairs, 
boats,  and  servants,  counterfeited  skilfully  in  paper, 
and  costing  hundreds  of  dollars,  are  offered  by  the 
descendants  and  friends  of  the  deceased,  and  are 
consumed  in  little  bonfires  that  fill  the  court-yard 
with  flame,  smoke  and  ashes.  Married  daughters 
bring  armfuls  of  paper  clothing  and  add  it  to  the 
blaze,  kneeling  and  leaning  their  heads  against  a 
bar  from  their  looms.  Neighbours  and  acquaintances 
bring  packages  of  similar  goods,  and  commit  them, 
through  the  flames,  to  the  care  of  the  deceased,  to 
be  transferred  by  him  to  their  own  relatives  in  the 
region  to  which  he  is  going.  Some  offer  real  arti- 
cles, which  are  spread  on  tables,  with  edibles,  and 
these  are  usually  carried  away  during  the  night  by 
poor  souls  still  in  the  flesh.  Supplies  of  paper 
goods  are  also  burned  for  the  poverty-stricken  and 
friendless  dead,  who  might  without  this  pacification 
rob  the  beloved  traveller  of  the  things  intended  for 
his  sole  behoof.  All  night  the  fires  glow,  the  smoke 
ascends,  the  priests  chant  and  the  mourners  wail. 


66  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

On  the  morning  of  the  eighth  day  the  priests 
usually  depart,  and  the  family  resumes,  in  some  de- 
gree, its  ordinary  occupations.  Three  times,  at  the 
new  and  the  full  moon,  the  married  daughters  of 
the  deceased  each  bring  a  pig's  head  and  a  large 
steamed  cake,  and  join  their  brothers  in  worship 
before  the  seat  of  the  spirit  in  their  father's  house. 
On  the  sixth  day  of  the  sixth  Chinese  month  after 
the  removal  of  the  seat  of  the  spirit,  the  sons  buy 
one  cock,  one  water-melon,  cakes,  and  incense,  and 
offer  them  to  their  father's  spirit,  that  being  the 
day  on  which  he,  having  been  judged  before  ten 
courts  in  Hades,  crosses  its  narrow  bridge  and  passes 
into  a  region  decreed  to  him  according  to  his  deserts. 
The  cock  wakens  him,  and  is  afterward  presented 
by  him  to  the  keeper  of  the  bridge;  the  melon  and 
cakes  are  distributed  on  the  route,  and  the  incense 
is  burned  in  ceremonious  respect  to  the  deceased. 
After  the  first  hundred  days,  the  dead  parent  receives 
offerings  of  food  with  the  burning  of  incense  and 


MORTUARY   CUSTOMS.  67 

spirit-money  about  ten  times  a  year,  including  always 
his  birthday  and  the  anniversary  of  his  death. 

White  is,  in  a  general  way,  the  colour  of  mourn- 
ing. Sons,  during  the  first  three  days,  wear  the 
tunic  wrong  side  out  and  on  one  side  of  the  body  only. 
After  that  time  they  wear,  like  other  mourners,  gar- 
ments of  unbleached  hempen  cloth,  except  on  the 
seventh  day,  when  they  and  their  wives  wear  sack- 
cloth tunics,  usually  hired  from  a  shop  at  which 
coffins  are  sold.  The  sons  do  not  shave  their  heads 
for  one  hundred  days,  and  they  wear  mourning  for 
twenty-seven  months,  during  which  time  they  cannot 
legally  marry.  Daughters  and  daughters-in-law  put  off 
mourning  at  the  end  of  one  year,  when  they  resume 
their  golden  head-ornaments  and  don  some  bit  of  red. 

The  burial  of  the  encoffined  body  is  sometimes 
deferred  for  many  years,  awaiting  the  death  of  a 
spouse,  or  the  favourable  decision  of  a  geomancer  con- 
cerning a  site  for  a  tomb.  As  the  prosperity  of 
every  man's  descendants  is  thought  to  depend  upon 


68  A    CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

his  being  laid  in  a  spot  so  situated  with  regard  to 
wind  and  water  as  will  afford  him  undisturbed 
repose,  the  selection  of  a  place  of  interment  is  some- 
times difficult,  and  there  are  men  who  make  their 
living  by  searching  out  good  places  for  graves. 

The  grave  being  prepared,  friends  are  informed  of 
the  burial,  and  they  assemble  at  the  appointed  time 
to  follow  the  coffin  to  the  hills.  The  coffin  is  cov- 
ered with  a  red  pall.  Two  lanterns  are  tied  together 
with  a  red  cord,  and  arranged  so  as  to  hang  one  on 
either  side  of  the  coffin;  and  there  may  be  as  many 
pairs  of  lanterns  as  there  are  married  couples  among 
the  descendants  of  the  deceased.  Small  bags,  with 
a  red  and  a  green  side,  are  also  hung  upon  the  coffin, 
one  for  each  member  of  the  mourning  household. 
The  bags  contain  linen  thread,  cotton  rolls,  peas, 
rice,  hemp-seed,  and  coins,  emblems  of  longevity, 
fecundity,  and  wealth.  They  have  an  occult  influ- 
ence on  the  weal  of  the  living. 

Before    the    procession    moves,    twelve     bowls     of 


SETTING    OUT    FOR    THE    CEMETERY 


MORTUARY  CUSTOMS.  69 

soup,  in  which  pellets  of  dough  float,  are  offered, 
Avith  prostrations,  to  the  dead.  The  number  twelve 
and  the  vernacular  name  of  the  pellets  express  com- 
pleteness, and  are  a  funereal  charade.  Four  or  more 
men,  hired  for  high  wages,  bear  the  coffin.  It  is 
followed  to  the  grave  by  male  friends,  all  in  mourn- 
ing, with  tall  white  caps.  The  women,  with  white 
scarfs  on  their  heads,  go  but  a  short  distance  from 
the  house  to  a  fork  in  the  road,  where  a  lad  has 
been  stationed  with  a  banyan-branch.  There  they 
burn  incense,  make  obeisance  to  the  coffin,  break  off 
a  twig  of  the  banyan,  and  return  by  a  route  other 
than  the  one  by  which  they  came.  A  convenient 
superstition  preserves  them  from  a  long  journey  on 
their  maimed  feet,  and  declares  that  they  "must  not 
follow  the  dead  to  death." 

The  sons  of  the  deceased  carry  each  a  staff  of 
bamboo  or  of  banyan,  which  is  left  at  the  grave. 
Spirit-money  is  scattered  along  the  road  to  buy  right 
of  way  from  demons  that  might  oppose.  The  coffin 


70  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

being  lowered,  each  person  in  the  procession  takes 
up  some  mortar  in  the  flap  of  his  tunic  and  casts  it 
into  the  grave.  When  the  pit  is  filled  and  rounded, 
sesame,  whose  vernacular  name  means  completion,  is 
planted  on  the  top,  to  grow  in  sun  and  rain.  A 
new,  small,  gilded  image,  that  has  been  brought  with 
the  coffin  to  the  tomb,  has  a  dot  added  to  a  hiero- 
glyphic upon  it,  changing  the  meaning  of  the  said 
hieroglyphic  from  king  to  lord.  At  this  instant  it 
becomes  a  household  god,  and  is  carried  back  with 
reverence  to  be  placed  on  the  shrine  of  the  lares  in 
the  house,  and  worshipped  with  oblations. 

During  three  years,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  death, 
presents  of  paper  clothing  are  sent  to  the  deceased  by 
burning  them.  So  long  as  there  are  male  descendants 
living,  they  worship  the  grave  in  the  seventh  month 
of  each  year.  When  the  family  becomes  so  large 
that  a  division  of  the  estate  and  separate  dwellings 
are  expedient,  the  images  of  the  progenitors  are 
inherited  by  the  eldest  son. 


CHINESE    BABIES    AND    THEIR    GRAND- 
MOTHERS. 

I  HAVE  had  frequent  occasion  to  congratulate  or 
to  console  Chinese  women;  and  when  I  came  near 
enough  to  them  to  discern  the  true  source  of  their 
joy  or  their  grief,  I  have  seldom  found  it  to  be  the 
same  as  that  which  floods  an  American  woman's 
heart  under  the  same  circumstances.  The  tendency 
of  their  environment  is  to  make  them  to  the  last 
degree  earthly  and  sordid;  and  who  searches  out 
the  foundation  of  their  woes  or  pleasures  usually 
discovers  sooner  or  later  that  these  have  a  money 
basis. 

One  day  I  said  to  a  pagan  Chinese  woman,  "I 
hear  that  your  daughter  has  a  son.  I  suppose  you 
are  pleased  that  the  baby  is  a  boy."  "Well,"  re- 

71 


72  A   CORNER   OF    CATHAY. 

plied  she,  "if  it  were  my  son's  son,  I  should  be 
glad.  The  child  would  then  belong  to  my  own 
family,  would  live  in  my  house,  would  have  duties 
to  me  while  I  am  alive,  and  would  make  offerings 
to  me  when  I  am  dead.  A  daughter's  son  is  of  no 
use  to  its  grandmother,  though  it  causes  her  much 
outlay.  A  daughter  is  a  troublesome  and  expensive 
thing,  anyway.  Not  only  has  she  to  be  fed,  but 
there  is  all  the  trouble  of  binding  her  feet,  and  of 
getting  her  betrothed,  and  of  making  up  her  wed- 
ding garments;  and  even  after  she  is  married  off  she 
must  have  presents  made  to  her  when  she  has  chil- 
dren. Really,  it  is  no  wonder  that  so  many  baby 
girls  are  slain  at  their  birth!" 

The  welcome  which  a  Chinese  infant  receives,  and 
the  rites  attending  its  growth,  vary  with  its  sex,  the 
social  condition  of  its  parents,  and  the  number  of  its 
predecessors.  The  following  account  applies  in  full 
only  to  the  first-born  son. 

Soon   after   birth,  one   small   bowl   of   rice,  one  of 


CHINESE  BABIES   AND  THEIR   GRANDMOTHERS.      73 

sugar,  one  of  salt  cabbage,  and  one  of  wine  are 
placed  beside  the  child.  The  smallness  of  the  bowls 
indicates  that  he  who  eats  from  them  will  not  be  a 
gourmand.  The  food  in  them  being  such  as  robust 
men  relish,  indicates  that  the  eater  will  be  strong 
and  will  have  a  healthful  appetite.  A  picture  of 
the  sun,  the  symbol  of  a  bright  intelligence,  is  cut 
from  an  almanac,  dipped  in  the  wine,  and  used  to 
wash  the  child's  mouth,  after  which  it  is  made  to 
swallow  a  few  kernels  of  the  boiled  rice,  a  speck  of 
cabbage,  and  a  little  sugar. 

The  child  is  wrapped  in  old  cloth,  and  is  usually 
laid  in  a  shallow  basket,  suspended  by  cords  from 
the  roof-beams.  It  is  first  washed,  one  day,  three 
days,  or  thirty  days  after  its  birth,  according  to  the 
traditions  of  its  father's  family.  In  each  case  the 
family  tradition  probably  took  its  origin  from  an 
ancestress  who  successfully  reared  many  sons,  and 
who  was,  therefore,  supposed  to  have  hit  upon  a 
lucky  day  for  their  first  bath. 


74  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

During  the  first  three  days  of  the  child's  life,  the 
relatives  of  the  father,  near  and  remote,  send  con- 
gratulatory presents  of  pork,  eggs,  and  vermicelli. 
One  half  of  each  person's  gift  is  accepted,  the  other 
half  being  returned  by  the  messenger  who  brought 
it.  -The  mother's  relatives  also  send  presents,  and 
of  these  the  whole  are  accepted.  The  maternal 
grandmother  puts  into  a  pot  having  a  nozzle  one 
pound  of  cooked  pork  and  twelve  boiled  eggs  with- 
out their  shells.  She  then  wraps  the  pot  in  red,  the 
colour  of  joy,  and  sticks  into  its  nozzle  a  branch  of 
pomegranate,  suggesting  fruitf ulness ;  and  she  puts 
the  whole  into  the  centre  of  a  large  basket,  sur- 
rounding it  with  a  hundred  ducks'  eggs  and  a  hun- 
dred hens'  eggs,  all  uncooked.  To  this,  the  mater- 
nal great-grandmother,  the  aunts,  the  cousins,  and 
the  old  neighbours,  add  presents  of  pork  and  vermi- 
celli, and  the  whole  is  sent  to,  and  accepted  at,  the 
home  of  the  little  new-comer.  During  the  first 
three  days,  the  house  is  kept  astir,  and  the  paternal 


CHINESE   BABIES   AND   THEIR   GRANDMOTHERS.      75 

grandmother  made  busy,  by  the  arrival  and  depart- 
ure of  messengers  with  gifts. 

From  the  fourth  day  to  the  ninth,  the  mother  and 
infant  are  supposed  to  require  rest;  and  during  that 
time  friends  make  no  calls  and  send  no  messages. 
After  the  birth  of  the  child,  the  mother  eats  pork 
and  eggs,  but  abstains  from  fish,  the  latter  being 
considered  too  heavy  a  diet.  On  the  ninth  or  the 
twelfth  day,  family  customs  varying,  and  the  day 
being  often  decided  upon  by  a  soothsayer,  she  par- 
takes of  fish.  On  the  same  day,  the  gods  of  the 
bedstead  and  of  the  kitchen  are  worshipped,  offerings 
being  made  to  them  by  the  paternal  grandmother,  or 
some  other  female  relative.  Afterward,  a  bowl  of 
sweet  soup  and  a  bowl  of  cooked  vermicelli  are 
carried  to  each  of  the  relatives  and  friends  of  the 
father,  those  who  sent  presents  during  the  first  three 
days.  On  no  account  must  any  donor  be  forgotten. 

When  the  boy  is  about  a  month  old,  on  a  day 
indicated  by  certain  omens  as  lucky,  his  head  is 


76  A   COKNEU   OF   CATHAY. 

shaven  for  the  first  time.  Elaborate  preparation  for 
this  event  must  be  made  by  the  maternal  grand- 
mother. She  must  then  present  to  her  grandson  at 
least  four  jars  of  bean  catsup,  one  jar  of  confection- 
ery, one  jar  of  pastry,  one  jar  of  sugar,  one  jar  of 
dried  fruit,  a  primer,  an  inkstand,  two  pens,  two 
cakes  of  ink,  five  hats,  twelve  sorts  of  garments, 
two  scarfs  in  which  he  may  be  tied  upon  his 
mother's  back,  two  razors,  two  cotton  rolls  ready  for 
spinning,  and  two  eggs  coloured  red.  The  first  five 
are  for  the  use  of  those  who  take  care  of  him,  the 
second  five  are  to  encourage  him  to  make  an  early 
beginning  in  his  literary  career,  and  the  remainder 
are  for  immediate  service.  With  the  razors,  his  head 
is  shaven  in  spots,  many  little  tufts  of  his  black 
h:iir  being  left  to  presage  the  number  of  trunks  his 
future  bride  will  require  for  packing  her  trousseau. 
The  two  cotton  rolls  then  serve  as  a  sponge  to  wash 
his  little  pate,  and  the  two  red  eggs  are  rubbed 
gently  over  it,  after  which  their  shells  are  removed, 


GOING    TO    VISIT    A    MARRIED    DAUGHTER 


CHINESE   BABIES    AND   THEIR   GRANDMOTHERS.      77 

and  they  are  cut  in  small  pieces  with  a  thread,  put 
into  a  bowl,  and  partaken  of  by  all  the  assembled 
relatives  and  by  the  children  of  the  neighbours. 
The  eating  of  the  egg  is  looked  upon  as  an  expres- 
sion of  love  and  a  pledge  of  future  kindness  toward 
the  child. 

The  making  ready  of  all  these  things  to  be  pre- 
sented at  the  head-shaving  requires  many  months  of 
time,  and  often  forces  the  maternal  grandmother  to 
severe  personal  economy.  Then,  if  the  infant  proves 
to  be  a  despised  girl,  much  of  her  labour  is  wasted, 
and  must  all  be  repeated  until  a  boy  has  been  duly 
welcomed  in  her  daughter's  house.  Every  woman 
has  these  things  to  do,  not  because  they  are  enforced 
by  imperial  law,  but  because  they  are  what  other 
people  expect  and  require  from  her. 

If  the  child  be  healthy,  and  its  relatives  meet 
with  no  misfortunes,  so  that  blind  fortune-tellers 
and  expositors  of  demonolatry  are  not  called  to  in- 
terfere in  its  fate,  it  may  live  and  grow  for  a  few 


78  A   CORNER    OP   CATHAY. 

years  uneventfully.  With  its  bead-like  black  eyes, 
its  serious  little  chrome-yellow  face,  and  its  parti- 
coloured garments  rivalling  in  brightness  the  hues  of 
the  macaw,  it  is  one  of  the  queerest  bits  of  human- 
ity to  be  found  on  the  globe. 


GAMES   OF   CHINESE   CHILDREN. 

THOUGH  Chinese  children  are  habitually  grave, 
and  always  quiet  when  in  the  presence  of  their 
elders  of  superiors,  and  although  they  are  often 
engaged  in  assisting  grown  people  in  hard  work, 
they  are  like  other  children  in  having  many  sports. 

Little  Chinese  girls  seldom  amuse  themselves  with 
dolls,  but  they  frequently  acquire  skill  in  playing 
with  a  single  ball,  hitting  it  with  foot,  forehead,  or 
hand,  as  it  bounds  from  roof,  wall,  and  floor.  The 
player  often  whirls  quickly  around  while  the  ball  is 
in  the  air,  and  meeting  it  upon  its  rebound,  sends  it 
up  again.  Some  girls  are  expert  in  tossing  marbles, 
keeping  as  many  as  five  in  air  at  one  time.  Both 
boys  and  girls  play  with  tops  and  shuttlecocks,  but 
boys  alone  fly  kites. 

79 


80  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

In  many  games  a  servitor  or  leader  is  chosen  in 
the  following  way.  The  children  stand  in  pairs, 
and  each  suddenly  thrusts  out  an  arm  with  one 
digit  extended  from  the  closed  fist.  One  or  the 
other,  in  each  pair,  is  vanquished  if  he  holds  out  a 
finger  reckoned  to  be  of  lesser  power  than  the  one 
extended  by  his  neighbour.  The  thumb  is  counted 
as  the  local  idol ;  the  forefinger  as  a  fowl ;  the  middle 
finger  as  a  gun;  the  ring  finger  as  a  fox;  the  little 
finger  as  a  white  ant.  If  a  thumb  be  opposed  to  a 
forefinger,  the  thumb  vanquishes,  because  fowls  are 
commonly  slain  as  offerings  to  idols.  If  a  thumb 
be  opposed  to  a  middle  finger,  the  thumb  vanquishes, 
because  a  god  is  greater  than  the  gun,  which  is  often 
used  to  announce  the  presence  of  the  gods.  If  a 
thumb  be  opposed  to  a  ring  finger,  there  is  neither 
a  victory  nor  a  defeat,  because  gods  and  foxes  are 
supposed  to  be  always  on  friendly  terms,  and  so 
there  must  be  another  trial.  If  a  thumb  be  opposed 
to  a  little  finger,  the  thumb  is  vanquished,  because 


GAMES   OF   CHINESE   CHILDREN.  81 

white  ants  often  devour  idols.  If  a  forefinger  be 
opposed  to  a  middle  finger,  the  latter  is  victor,  be- 
cause guns  destroy  fowls.  If  a  forefinger  be  opposed 
to  a  ring  finger,  the  former  is  conquered,  because 
foxes  eat  fowls.  If  a  forefinger  be  opposed  to  a 
little  finger,  the  latter  is  defeated,  because  fowls  eat 
white  ants.  If  a  middle  finger  be  opposed  to  a  ring 
finger,  the  latter  is  defeated,  because  guns  kill 
foxes.  If  a  middle  finger  be  opposed  to  a  little 
finger,  there  must  be  another  trial,  because  guns 
and  white  ants  have  no  mutual  influence.  If  a 
ring  finger  be  opposed  to  a  little  finger,  the  same 
result  follows,  because  foxes  and  white  ants  have  no 
known  relationship  to  each  other  for  either  good  or 
ill.  When  the  vanquished  in  each  couple  is  de- 
clared, then  these  defeated  ones  pair  off,  and  com- 
pete among  themselves,  until  a  servitor  is  announced 
by  the  showing  of  the  last  pair  of  hands. 

In  a  game   called  "The  Mud  Turtle,"  a  "mother- 
turtle  "  is  chosen  in  the  way  above  described.     Then 


82  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

each  player  furnishes  a  pair  of  shoes,  and  these  are 
given  to  the  mother-turtle  to  cover  as  her  eggs. 
She  piles  them  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  and 
sprawls  over  them,  turtle-like,  on  all  fours,  guard- 
ing them  from  prowlers.  The  other  children  steal 
the  eggs  at  every  opportunity;  but  any  prowler  who 
is  touched  by  the  turtle's  hand  or  foot  must  take 
her  place.  The  eggs  that  have  been  stolen  must  be 
brought  back  by  the  turtle  who  lost  them,  payment 
being  made  in  forfeits  to  the  successful  thief. 

Blindman's-buff  is  played  under  the  title  "Fishing- 
by-hand."  A  limit  is  set,  beyond  which  none  may 
pass  during  the  game.  The  leader  holds  her  right 
arm  level,  with  the  palm  of  her  hand  ( downward, 
and  the  other  players  touch  her  palm  with  the  point 
of  the  index  finger.  Whoever  she  can  catch,  by 
suddenly  closing  her  hand  upon  the  finger,  must  put 
on  the  blinder  and  become  "fisherman."  If  the 
blinded  fisher  calls  out,  saying,  "The  tide  is  rising," 
the  fish  must  clap  their  hands  to  suggest  their 


GAMES   OF   CHINESE  CHILDREN.  83 

activity  in  high  water;  but  if  the  fisher  says,  "The 
tide  is  falling,"  then  the  fish  must  steal  about  cau- 
tiously, as  if  they  had  but  little  water  to  sport  in. 
When  a  fish  is  caught,  the  fisher  must  guess  its 
name  before  taking  off  the  blinder. 

A  game  of  hide-and-seek  is  played  under  the 
name  of  "The  Butcher's  Account."  Each  player 
chooses  a  colour  for  his  marks,  using  charcoal  for 
black,  chalk  for  white,  a  fragment  of  soft  tile  for 
red,  a  bit  of  stucco  for  gray.  The  servitor  leans 
her  head  against  a  wall,  closes  her  eyes,  and  remains 
to  be  the  seeker.  The  other  children  take  their 
marking  material,  and  go  off  and  make  each  a  mark 
somewhere  within  the  limit  agreed  upon.  Any  one 
who  is  at  any  time  called  by  the  seeker  must  in- 
stantly respond  to  her  name.  When  all  the  markers 
have  returned,  the  seeker  takes  their  pencils  and 
goes  to  find  their  marks,  crossing  each  mark  with  its 
own  colour.  If  the  seeker  fails  to  find  any  of  the 
marks,  she  has  to  pay  a  forfeit  to  the  one  whose 
mark  she  fails  to  find. 


84  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

A  game  resembling  that  of  "  Button  "  is  played  by 
ranging  several  children  in  a  row  within  some  area 
large  enough  for  them  to  run  in.  The  servitor 
holds  a  fruit-pip  between  her  hands,  and  passes 
along  the  line  of  players,  pretending  to  deposit  some- 
thing in  the  hands  of  each,  and  saying  as  she 

goes :  — 

Something  for  all,  a  pip  for  one ; 
Four-o'clock  seeds  and  pineapple  bun  ; 
Pewter,  peas,  and  powder.     Run  I 

At  the  word  Run,  she  who  has  received  the  pip 
speeds  toward  a  place  of  refuge  in  a  room  previously 
agreed  upon,  and  the  others  try  to  catch  the  runner 
before  she  reaches  the  refuge.  If  the  fugitive  is 
caught,  the  pip  goes  back  to  the  servitor,  and  the 
game  begins  anew.  But  if  she  who  holds  the  pip 
reaches  the  refuge,  those  left  behind  give  them- 
selves names;  perhaps  of  flowers,^>erhaps  of  animals, 
perhaps  of  articles  of  furniture.  The  servitor  then 
calls  out  to  the  pip-holder,  telling  her  all  the  names 


GAMES    OF   CHINESE   CHILDREN.  85 

chosen,  and  asks  which  she  will  take.  She  mentions 
one  of  the  names,  and  the  one  so  named  must  go 
and  bring  the  pip-holder  pick-a-back  to  the  play- 
ground, taking  the  pip  from  her  before  starting  on 
the  journey.  If  the  carrier  forgets  to  secure  the 
pip  before  returning,  she  who  holds  it  may  again 
run  to  the  refuge,  and  the  carrier  must  a  second 
time  bring  her  out  pick-a-back. 

In  a  game  called  "The  Water  Sprite,"  the  servitor 
acts  as  sprite,  and  stands  in  the  middle  of  a  hall 
taken  to  represent  a  river.  The  players  range  them- 
selves along  the  sides  of  the  hall,  as  if  standing  on 
the  banks  of  the  stream,  and  then  all  in  a  file  make 
the  circuit  of  the  hall  three  times,  singing:  — 

Years  glide  along,  and  the  third  one  is  here  : 
Whom  will  the  water-sprite  take  this  year  ? 

The  couplet  is  an  allusion  to  a  popular  superstition 
that  when  one  person  has  fallen  into  a  well,  pool, 
or  creek,  another  will,  after  three  years,  be  pulled 


86  A    CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

in  by  the  resident  demon.  So,  after  the  lines  of 
folk  have  three  times  crossed  and  recrossed  the  pre- 
tended stream,  they  return  to  their  places  on  its 
banks,  and  thereafter  the  sprite  waiting  in  its  waters 
tries  to  catch  whoever  crosses  it.  The  folk  run  to 
and  fro,  and  when  one  is  caught  between  the  banks, 
he  takes  the  place  of  the  sprite,  who  then  joins 
those  on  the  banks. 

A  game  involving  much  muscular  exercise  is 
called  "The  Lame  Chicken."  It  is  played  by  jump- 
ing on  one  foot  between  shoes  that  have  been  placed 
across  a  road,  with  intervals  of  about  ten  inches. 
When  the  end  of  the  line  of  shoes  is  reached,  the 
last  shoe  in  the  line  is  kicked  away  by  the  "  lame  " 
foot,  and  then  it  is  picked  up  and  carried  back  over 
the  route,  to  the  other  end  of  the  line,  when  a 
second  shoe  may  be  likewise  kicked  away  and  picked 
up  before  returning.  Only  one  foot  may  touch  the 
ground,  and  may  touch  it  but  once  in  each  inter- 
space. No  shoe  may  be  touched  except  the  ones 


GAMES   OF   CHINESE   CHILDREN.  87 

which  end  the  line,  and  the  shoes  kicked  away  must 
be  picked  up  without  putting  the  "lame"  foot  upon 
the  ground.  When  the  "chicken"  violates  any  of 
these  rules,  he  must  at  once  give  place  to  another 
performer.  The  shorter  the  line,  the  more  difficult 
it  is  to  collect  shoes,  because  each  shoe  taken 
involves  turning  around  without  using  the  "lame" 
leg.  The  winner  in  the  game  is  lie  who  has  at 
the  end  of  it  the  greatest  number  of  shoes.  These 
are  redeemed  by  their  owners,  as  forfeits. 

A  game  called  "The  Water-demon  Seeking  a 
Den "  is  played  by  five  persons  precisely  as  is 
"Puss-in-the-Corner."  This  is  a  native,  not  an 
imported  game;  and  no  one  knows  whether  Chinese 
and  European  children  invented  it  independently, 
or  whether  the  knowledge  of  it  was  inherited  by 
both  from  ancient,  common  ancestors.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  "The  Cat's  Cradle,"  which  is  made 
with  a  string,  and  passed  from  one  pair  of  hands  to 
another  pair,  precisely  as  among  children  in  Amer- 


88  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

ica  and  Europe;  but  the  Chinese  call  it  "Sawing 
Wood,"  in  allusion  to  the  final  act  in  the  perform- 
ance. Possibly  the  games  of  children  may  give,  as 
do  languages,  a  clue  to  the  descent  of  nations. 

"  A  Water-wheel "  is  made  by  a  goodly  number 
of  children,  of  nearly  the  same  height,  joining  hands 
and  forming  a  circle,  all  facing  inward.  Then  two 
of  the  children  raise  two  arms  to  form  an  arch,  and 
those  opposite  them  in  the  circle  pass  under  the 
arch,  followed  in  order  by  their  successors  in  the 
circle,  until  all  have  passed  the  arch.  The  children, 
who  should  never  unclasp  their  united  hands,  then 
all  face  outward.  Those  who  first  passed  under  the 
arch  now  quickly  raise  two  hands,  and  those  oppo- 
site them  in  the  circle  pass  under,  and  the  children 
follow,  till  all  in  the  circle  again  face  inward.  This 
may  be  indefinitely  repeated,  and  if  the  movement 
be  smooth  and  rapid,  and  if  the  children  meanwhile 
imitate  with  their  voices  the  sound  of  bubbling  water 
and  of  a  creaking  wheel,  the  play  is  a  very  pretty  one. 


GAMES    OF   CHINESE   CHILDREN.  89 

When  the  children  "Make  a  Centipede,"  they  join 
1  lands,  the  tallest  at  the  head,  and  the  others  ranged 
in  order  of  height  down  to  the  smallest  at  the  end 
of  the  line.  Each  child  then  puts  his  head  under 
the  arm  that  is  nearest  his  taller  neighbour,  and 
follows  him  in  a  route  which  is  dictated  by  the 
movement  of  the  tallest. 

For  "Turning  the  Wheel,"  a  strong  jar  or  a  round 
stone  may  be  used  as  a  hub,  which  is  laid  upon  a 
smooth,  solid  surface.  Four  or  five  children,  facing 
each  other,  and  placing  their  feet  firmly  upon  the 
hub,  form  the  spokes,  and  an  equal  number,  alternat- 
ing with  the  spokes,  and  standing  on  the  ground, 
form  the  fellies.  Each  child  then  joins  hands  with 
its  nearest  neighbours,  and  the  fellies  walk,  all  in 
the  same  direction.  If  the  spokes  be  rigid,  and  the 
fellies  firm,  the  wheel  thus  composed  turns  round 
and  round,  the  hub  revolving  in  its  fixed  place. 

Other  games  give  exercise  to  mind  and  muscle, 
and  have  the  charm  to  which  children,  the  world 


90  A   CORNER    OP    CATHAY. 

over,  are  most  susceptible,  that  of  appealing  to  the 
imagination.  "  The  Hornets "  are  imitated  by  chil- 
dren cuddling  around  a  chair  or  a  tree,  as  their 
nest.  Two  grass-cutters  come  along  and  pretend  to 
cut  grass  thereabout,  talking  meanwhile  of  current 
events.  They  finally  sit  down  to  rest  and  smoke, 
and  while  so  doing  they  discover  the  hornets'  nest. 
They  agree  to  burn  it,  and  pretend  to  hold  their 
pipes  to  it  to  set  it  on  fire.  The  hornets  then  rush 
after  and  sting  them,  using  their  forefingers  as 
stings.  The  men  run,  the  hornets  pursue,  until  the 
tired  stingers  return  to  their  nest,  or  the  grass- 
cutters  reach  home. 

In  the  play  of  "The  Dog-buyers,"  one  child  per- 
sonates an  old  man  who  lives  among  the  mountains 
and  rears  fine  dogs.  Several  children  retire  with 
him  behind  a  door,  and  represent  his  pets.  Two 
or  three  other  children  personate  villagers  who  have 
heard  of  the  excellence  of  the  old  man's  dogs,  and 
who  desire  to  buy  puppies.  These  walk  several 


GAMES    OF   CHINESE   CHILDREN.  91 

times  over  stairs  or  benches,  which  represent  rugged 
portions  of  their  supposed  journey,  singing  as  they 
travel :  — 

Up  the  hills  and  down  the  dales, 

To  buy  little  dogs  we  go  ; 
Through  the  woods,  across  the  vales, 

To  buy  little  dogs  we  go. 

When  they  knock  at  the  old  man's  door,  he  in- 
quires who  is  there,  and  they  tell  him  their  errand. 
Without  opening  the  door,  he  replies  in  a  surly 
manner  that  the  puppies  have  not  yet  got  their  eyes 
open,  and  cannot  leave  his  house  till  they  are  larger. 
The  would-be  buyers  return  over  the  road  by  which 
they  came,  and  soon  make  the  journey  a  second 
time,  singing  as  before.  Again  they  make  their 
request  at  the  old  man's  door,  and  again  he  attempts 
to  delay  the  time  of  their  taking  the  puppies;  but 
they  insist  upon  seeing  his  stock.  When  he  can 
no  longer  withstand  their  demands,  he  opens  the 
door,  the  dogs  rush  out,  barking,  snarling,  and  paw- 


92  A   CORNER   OF    CATHAY. 

ing  the  buyers,  so  that  they  run  for  life,  pursued  by 
the  dogs.  The  bravest  of  the  strangers  seizes  a  dog 
and  drags  it  away  with  him,  and  the  other  dogs 
retreat  to  their  master. 

In  playing  "The  Vegetable  Garden,"  all  of  the 
children,  except  three,  arrange  themselves  as  vegeta- 
bles in  garden-beds.  A  green-grocer  then  conies 
with  the  gardener,  comments  upon  the  size  and 
quality  of  the  vegetables,  bargains  for  them,  and 
agrees  to  pay  a  certain  price  for  the  whole.  The 
amount  being  accepted,  the  gardener  promises  to 
pull  and  trim  the  vegetables,  that  they  may  be  ready 
for  the  grocer  to  carry  away  the  next  morning.  The 
gardener  and  the  grocer  then  depart,  but  the  gar- 
dener soon  returns,  pulls  up  the  vegetables,  trims  off 
their  leaves,  and  lays  them  on  the  ground  to  dry. 
When  he  has  gone,  the  night  is  supposed  to  come 
on,  and  with  it  comes  a  thief  who  carries  off  all  the 
vegetables  to  his  hiding-place.  He  has  a  pole  over 
his  shoulder,  and  to  this  he  attaches  the  vegetables 


GAMES   OF  CHINESE   CHILDREN.  93 

by  their  hands,  and  they  walk  along  with  him.  The 
morning  having  come,  the  grocer  goes  to  take  his 
vegetables  and  finds  the  garden  empty.  He  seeks 
the  gardener,  who  is  appalled  by  the  disappearance 
of  the  produce,  and  both  go  in  quest  of  the  thief. 
After  much  search,  they  discover  the  vegetables, 
stacked  up  in  a  corner,  and  determine  to  lie  in  hid- 
ing and  await  the  coming  of  the  thief,  that  they 
may  catch  and  punish  him.  He  appears,  they  seize 
and  bind  him,  and  while  the  gardener  marches  him 
off  to  the  magistrate,  the  grocer  carries  off  the  veg- 
etables hanging  on  a  pole. 

In  the  next  scene  the  thief  may  be  tried  before 
the  magistrate,  and  condemned  to  pay  for  a  puppet 
show  for  the  amusement  of  the  populace,  and  in  this 
scene  the  vegetables  appear  again  as  puppets. 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLING. 

AN  error  that  has  shown  great  tenacity  to  life, 
after  many  contradictions,  remains  extant  in  recent 
books,  in  the  statement  that  education  is  universal 
among  the  men  of  the  Middle  Kingdom.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  not  more  than  one  Chinese  man  in  a 
hundred,  taking  the  empire  through,  knows  how  to 
read,  and  still  fewer  can  write  a  letter.  Of  women, 
not  more  than  one  in  a  thousand  can  read,  and  these 
are  members  of  wealthy  families,  and  have,  in  the 
happy  past,  been  the  domestic  pets  of  their  learned 
fathers  and  brothers.  Only  boys  go  to  school. 

There  is  no  system  of  public  instruction,  and  all 
learning  is  acquired  in  private  classes.  A  man  who 
has  sons  or  grandsons  whom  he  wishes*  to  educate, 
and  who  may  be  called  a  self-elected  trustee,  finds 

94 


SCHOOLS   AND    SCHOOLING.  95 

out  how  many  of  his  friends  and  neighbours  are 
willing  to  join  in  the  establishment  of  a  school,  and 
will  pay  the  usual  rate  for  the  instruction  of  a  pupil 
—  two  or  three  dollars  in  silver,  one  peck  of  rice 
worth  from  thirty  to  fifty  cents,  and  a  hundred 
copper  cash,  worth  nine  cents.  From  ten  to  twenty 
boys  are  enough  to  meet  the  expenses  of  a  school. 
The  trustee  hires  the  teacher,  and  becomes  responsi- 
ble for  the  payment  of  his  salary,  as  well  as  for  as 
much  rice,  fuel,  tea,  tobacco,  and  paper  as  will  sup- 
ply his  needs.  The  teacher  expects,  besides,  from 
each  pupil,  a  small  present  of  cash,  amounting  to 
from  three  to  five  cents,  at  each  of  the  six  festivals 
of  the  school  year.  The  income  of  a  teacher,  in  a 
village  school,  seldom  amounts  to  more  than  thirty 
dollars  a  year  beyond  current  expenses.  A  teacher 
who  has  taken  a  literary  degree  may  receive  from 
fifty  to  ninety  dollars  a  year,  but  he  is  usually  em- 
ployed as  tutor  in  a  city. 

The   trustee  provides  a  schoolroom,  which  is  often 


96  A    CORNER    OP   CATHAY. 

an  ancestral  temple  or  an  empty  dwelling-house. 
He  also  supplies  the  teacher  with  a  chair,  desk,  bed- 
stead, and  cooking-utensils.  Each  pupil  brings  his 
own  desk,  stool,  and  whatever  else  is  required  by 
him  in  the  schoolroom,  including  what  are  commonly 
called  "the  four  gems  of  the  study"  —  the  brush 
used  in  writing  hieroglyphics,  the  cake  of  ink  which 
is  rubbed  upon  a  wetted  inkstone  to  make  the  pig- 
ment in  which  the  brush  is  dipped,  the  inkstone,  in 
which  there  is  a  little  well  to  hold  water,  and  the 
set  of  books  to  which  all  aspiring  youths  devote 
themselves. 

On  the  day  of  opening  the  school,  the  trustee 
makes  a  noonday  feast,  to  which  he  invites  the 
teacher  and  as  many  other  guests  as  will  make  a 
party  of  eight.  These  guests  sit  down  at  two  small 
square  tables.  After  dinner  the  pupils  assemble, 
and  the  teacher  pastes  upon  the  schoolroom  wall  a 
sheet  of  paper  upon  which  he  has  written,  in  large 
characters,  the  name  of  Confucius.  On  a  table,  set 


SCHOOLS   AND   SCHOOLING.  97 

as  a  temporary  altar  before  the  revered  name  of  the 
philosopher,  are  placed  lighted  candles,  censers,  three 
cups  of  tea,  and  some  packages  of  molasses  candy, 
made  into  tubes  symbolic  of  the  unobstructed  mind. 
Before  this  altar  the  teacher  and  pupils  burn  incense- 
sticks  and  spirit-money  in  homage  to  the  sage. 
The  teacher  stands  nearest  the  altar,  and  the  boys, 
grouped  behind  him,  kneel  with  him,  and  thrice  bow 
the  forehead  to  the  floor.  The  teacher  then  informs 
Confucius  of  the  day,  month,  and  year  in  which  the 
school  is  opened,  and  prays  for  his  favour,  saying: 
"Oh,  greatest  and  holiest  of  sages!  Bless  these  thy 
disciples ;  open  their  understanding,  and  make  it 
easy  for  them  to  learn.  When  they  write,  make  their 
wrists  flexible  as  willow  withes,  and  when  they 
recite,  make  their  words  to  flow  like  water  in  a 
mountain  brook.  Help  them  to  compose  both  in 
prose  and  verse,  and  to  attain  literary  degrees."  The 
obeisance  to  Confucius  having  been  thrice  repeated, 
the  teacher  stands  beside  his  chair,  and  the  pupils 


98  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

one  by  one  pay  homage  to  him  by  kneeling  once  and 
touching  the  floor  with  the  forehead.  The  trustee 
then  distributes  the  molasses  candy  among  the  boys, 
and  they  take  it  home  and  present  it  to  their  parents 
and  friends.  The  name  of  Confucius  remains  upon 
the  wall  during  the  year,  and  is  worshipped  by  the 
pupils,  each  by  himself,  on  the  first  and  the  fifteenth 
day  of  every  lunar  month,  and  at  all  the  chief  festi- 
vals. At  the  end  of  the  year  the  teacher  and  pupils 
again  worship  it  together,  with  the  same  formalities 
as  at  the  opening  of  the  school,  and  then  take  it 
from  the  wall  and  reverently  burn  it. 

The  school  opens  about  a  month  after  the  New 
Year,  and  continues,  in  a  desultory  way,  for  eleven 
months.  The  teacher  goes  to  his  native  place  when- 
ever there  is  a  dramatic  performance,  or  any  other 
festivity  of  especial  importance  there.  He  also  goes 
when  the  rice  is  harvested  and  he  needs  to  receive 
his  share  of  the  produce  of  his  farm,  when  there  is 
a  funeral  in  his  clan,  and  when  there  is  a  birth  or 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLING.  99 

a  wedding  in  his  family.  He  is  also  absent  for  a 
few  days  at  each  of  the  stated  festivals  —  that  of 
worshipping  at  the  tombs  of  the  ancestors,  in  the 
third  month;  that  of  the  races  of  the  dragon  boats, 
in  the  fifth  month;  that  of  homage  to  the  god  of  the 
bedstead,  in  the  seventh  month;  that  of  the  harvest- 
home,  in  the  tenth  month;  and  that  upon  the  short- 
est day  of  the  year,  in  the  eleventh  month. 

The  pupils  expect  a  vacation,  on  their  own  ac- 
count, whenever  a  play  is  performed  in  their  vil- 
lage, and  they  easily  get  leave  of  absence  when 
domestic  duties  call  them  from  study.  Truancy  is, 
however,  punished  by  the  rod.  Every  forenoon  and 
afternoon  each  pupil,  as  he  comes,  takes  from  a  cup 
upon  the  teacher's  desk  a  tally  which  he  lays  be- 
fore the  teacher.  If  any  tally  remains  too  long  in 
the  cup,  the  teacher  sends  some  pupil  to  bring  the 
truant,  and,  unless  the  parents  come  to  explain  his 
absence,  he  is  whipped.  After  all  the  boys  are 
accounted  for,  the  teacher  replaces  the  tallies  in 


100  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

the  cup,  and,  thereafter,  if  any  boy  desires  to  leave  the 
room,  he  must  take  his  tally  and  lay  it  before  the 
teacher,  replacing  it  when  he  returns. 

It  is  customary  for  all  the  pupils  to  go  to  the 
schoolroom  at  dawn  silently  to  con  their  lessons. 
When  the  sun  is  well  risen,  the  eldest  boy  knocks 
at  the  teacher's  door  and  asks  permission  to  recite. 
The  teacher  emerges  and  hears  the  recitation,  and 
the  pupil  then  goes  home  to  his  breakfast.  When 
all  have  recited  and  breakfasted,  they  return  to 
sweep  the  schoolroom  and  wash  the  teacher's  dishes 
before  beginning  study  again.  About  noon  they  go 
home  to  dinner,  and  play  until  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon,  when  they  resume  their  lessons,  and  con- 
tinue study  until  sunset.  After  their  early  supper, 
the  older  ones  go  back  to  the  schoolroom  for  study 
during  the  evening. 

The  teacher  is  usually  accompanied  by  a  son  or 
nephew,  who  does  his  cooking,  and  benefits  by  in- 
struction with  the  local  students.  The  pupils  all 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLING.  101 

assist  the  teacher  in  his  simple  housekeeping,  and 
their  mothers  do  his  washing,  mending,  and  sewing, 
without  other  compensation  than  his  diligence  in 
imparting  knowledge  to  their  sons.  When  the 
teacher  has  ascertained  which  woman  is  most  expert 
in  the  cutting  and  making  of  garments,  he  honours 
her  by  sending  his  cloth  to  her  to  be  made  up. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  schoolmaster  who  bought  just 
enough  of  cotton  fabric  for  one  tunic,  and  sent  one 
of  his  pupils  home  with  a  message  to  his  mother  to 
make  of  the  cloth  a  tunic  to  wear  in  the  street,  a 
gown  to  sleep  in,  two  pockets  for  carrying  books, 
and  a. face  towel.  The  mother  feared  to  offend  her 
son's  teacher  by  sending  back  the  material  uncut, 
and  as  there  was  not  enough  of  it  for  anything  more, 
she  made  a  tunic,  and  told  her  son  to  take  it  to  the 
master  and  say  that  his  sewing  was  finished.  If  the 
master  inquired  for  his  sleeping-gown,  the  boy  was 
to  point  to  the  tunic  and  say  that,  when  it  was 
slept  in,  it  would  be  a  sleeping-gown.  If  he  asked 


102  A   CORNER    OP   CATHAY. 

for  the  two  pockets  for  carrying  books,  the  boy  was 
to  direct  his  attention  to  the  upturned  ends  of  the 
wide  sleeves  as  a  suitable  and  common  receptacle 
for  books;  and  if  he  said  anything  about  the  towel, 
the  boy  was  to  suggest  that  it  was  there,  in  the 
flap.  The  pupil  carried  out  the  plan  and  got  credit 
for  having  a  shrewd  mother. 

Those  who  are  anxious  to  have  their  sons  make 
rapid  progress,  encourage  the  teacher  by  presents  of 
dainties.  A  woman  who  wished  to  have  her  son's 
teacher  well  disposed  toward  him  sent  the  master  a 
skilfully  prepared  dish  of  fish,  with  vegetables  sur- 
rounding it.  But  instead  of  sending  the  whole  fish, 
she  savingly  cut  out  its  middle  portion  and  joined 
the  head  and  tail  parts  so  nicely  that  she  hoped  the 
removal  of  the  best  half  would  not  be  discerned. 

The  teacher  enjoyed  the  savoury  odour  as  the  plate 
appeared,  and  sat  down  to  it  in  expectation  of  a 
luscious  meal.  He  ate  it  with  pleasure,  but  he 
thought  that  a  fish  having  so  large  a  head  could 


SCHOOLS    AND   SCHOOLING.  103 

not    so   suddenly    dwindle    into    a    tail.      Therefore, 
having    eaten    up    his    dinner    he    wrote     upon    the 

plate :  — 

A  big  perch  makes  a  savoury  dish, 

In  a  chowder,  in  broth,  or  in  pickle : 
But  the  head  is  as  void  as  a  drum, 
And  the  tail  is  as  thin  as  a  sickle. 

The  boy  took  the  plate  to  his  mother,  and  read  to 
her  the  verse  upon  it,  and  she  sent  him  back  to  the 
teacher  with  the  following  message :  — 

In  my  house,  things  are  not  as  in  yours ; 

There  is  dearth  in  the  pot  and  the  griddle; 
The  old  grandmother  wanted  some  fish, 

So  I  stole  a  wee  bit  from  the  middle. 

The  teacher  could  not  complain  when  a  woman 
showed  regard  for  her  mother-in-law  as  well  as  for 
her  son's  teacher,  and  he  thought  it  worth  while  to 
instruct  diligently  a  boy  whose  mother  could  com- 
pose verses. 

The   course   of  study  includes   only  reading,  writ- 


104  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

ing,  and  composition.  Any  one  who  desires  to  learn 
arithmetic,  calculation  on  the  abacus  or  computing- 
machine,  letter-writing,  and  the  art  of  detecting 
counterfeit  money,  must  study  these  branches  under 
one  or  more  specialists  who  fit  young  men  for  com- 
mercial pursuits.  The  reckoning  of  accounts,  the 
writing  of  epistles,  and  the  inspection  of  coins  are 
each  a  vocation  whereby  many  men  earn  their  liv- 
ing. The  course  of  those  who  hope  to  be  true 
literati  lies  distinctly  among  the  classics. 

The  Chinese  primer  is  an  ancient  book  of  rhymes 
with  three  monosyllables  in  each  line.  After  this 
follows  the  book  of  one  thousand  different  characters, 
metrically  arranged  in  lines  of  four  words.  Having 
mastered  these,  the  student  plunges  into  the  revered 
conversations  of  the  sages,  taking  in  order  three 
books  of  Confucius  and  two  of  Mencius.  These  are 
all  committed  to  memory.  When  they  have  been 
thus  mastered,  the  learner  returns  upon  his  route, 
and  studies  each  of  these  books  with  notes  and  a 


SCHOOLS   AND   SCHOOLING.  105 

commentary,  supplemented  by  the  explanations  of  the 
teacher.  After  that,  he  studies  a  volume  which  con- 
tains all  five  of  these  books,  with  more  extended 
notes  on  the  whole;  and  he  endeavours  to  get  light 
upon  the  text  by  reading  the  expositions  of  many 
authors,  and  by  listening  to  the  conversations  of  the 
learned. 

The  beginner  in  study  takes  his  book  to  the 
teacher  and  hears  him  read  a  column  or  more,  after 
which  the  pupil  returns  to  his  desk  and  cons  this 
lesson  aloud,  until  he  can  recite  it  without  looking 
at  it.  He  then  takes  his  book  again  to  the  teacher, 
turns  his  back  to  the  master,  and  recites  what  he  has 
learned.  This  is  called  "backing  the  lesson."  In 
this  way  the  pupil  commits  the  whole  book  to 
memory,  and  he  is  expected  to  learn  it  so  thor- 
oughly that  he  can  at  any  moment  repeat  the  whole 
of  any  passage  whose  initial  words  are  mentioned 
to  him. 

Writing  begins  soon   after   reading.     At   first,  the 


106  A    CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

learner  blackens,  with  a  little  brush  dipped  in  pig- 
ment, the  red  hieroglyphics  printed  in  his  copy-book. 
When  he  can  do  this  neatly,  he  traces  the  same 
upon  transparent  paper  laid  over  the  copy.  Later 
on,  he  copies  from  the  books  he  reads,  and,  still 
later,  he  writes  from  memory. 

Composition,  which  is  regarded  as  the  real  test  of 
scholarship,  is  begun  at  an  early  age.  Just  before 
the  noonday  recess,  the  teacher  writes  a  sentiment, 
a  proverb,  or  a  proposition  upon  a  slip  of  red  paper, 
and  pastes  it  upon  the  door.  Each  boy,  as  he  goes 
out,  reads  the  line,  and  in  the  afternoon  renders  to 
the  teacher  another  line  which  will,  with  the  first, 
make  a  couplet.  The  more  advanced  a  pupil,  the 
more  time  does  he  devote  to  composition;  and  odes, 
blank  verse,  ballads,  and  madrigals  are  followed  by 
the  highest  style  of  prose,  written  in  imitation  of 
the  classics. 

All  honours,  social,  pecuniary,  and  official,  await 
the  scholar,  and  the  teacher  has  always  at  hand 


SCHOOLS  AND   SCHOOLING.  107 

illustrious  examples  to  hold  up  for  the  emulation  of 
those  who  become  discouraged.  Among  the  ancients, 
as  among  the  moderns,  many  who  were  poor  or  stupid 
rose  to  eminence  by  sheer  diligence  and  self-disci- 
pline. The  teacher  tells  of  So  Chin,  who,  being 
afflicted  with  drowsiness  when  at  his  nightly  studies, 
thrust  a  needle  through  his  flesh  so  that  pain  might 
keep  him  awake;  and  of  the  restless  Sai  Lin,  whose 
active  body  revolted  against  sitting  at  his  books, 
and  who  cured  himself  of  a  constant  disposition  to 
rise  and  leave  them,  by  placing  a  pail  of  cold  water 
where  his  feet  would  be  immersed  in  it  whenever  he 
stood  up. 

A  warning  is  given  in  the  career  of  the  unscrupu- 
lous Pang  Kien,  who  cut  off  the  ends  of  the  straws 
that  his  teacher  told  him  to  arrange  evenly,  while 
the  careful  and  honest  Sung  Pin  separated  a  similar 
bundle  and  laid  the  straws  straight,  one  by  one,  and 
found  that  they  were  all  of  uniform  length  without 
cutting.  The  character  thus  manifested  by  the  two 


108  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

showed  their  teacher  which  of  his  pupils  would  best 
repay  his  efforts,  and  his  judgment  was  justified  by 
the  event,  for  Pang  Kien  came  to  no  good,  while 
Sung  Pin  won  renown  and  wealth,  and  great  hon- 
our came  through  him  to  his  preceptor.  Such  exam- 
ples stimulate  the  ambitious  student,  and  he  has, 
besides,  ever  before  him  the  hope  of  a  first  place  at 
the  examinations. 

The  preliminary  examinations  are  held  twice  in 
every  three  years,  at  the  chief  city  of  the  district. 
No  less  a  person  than  the  district  magistrate,  who 
has  himself  taken  three  literary  degrees  and  the 
title  of  "Advanced  Scholar,"  conducts  the  examina- 
tions. They  are  continued  twenty  days,  and  at  the 
end  of  that  time  the  names  of  all  the  students, 
ranged  in  the  order  of  merit,  are  placarded  on  the 
wall  of  the  Confucian  temple.  A  hundred  or  two 
who  rank  first  among  the  thousand  or  more  that 
have  entered  for  examination  are  considered  suitable 
candidates  for  the  first  literary  degree,  that  of 


SCHOOLS   AND   SCHOOLING.  109 

"Flowering  Talent,"  and  these  are  invited  by  the 
magistrate  to  a  banquet  at  his  residence. 

A  month  after  the  examination  at  the  district  city, 
another,  at  the  departmental  city,  is  conducted  by  a 
chancellor,  a  member  of  the  National  Academy,  sent 
from  Pekinsr.  He  who  succeeds  in  this  examination 

o 

takes  the  degree  of  Flowering  Talent,  and  receives 
an  ovation  on  his  return  to  his  native  place.  He 
may  afterward  go  to  the  provincial  capital,  where, 
once  in  three  years,  an  envoy  of  the  emperor  super- 
intends the  examination  of  those  who  have  taken  the 
first  degree  and  aspire  to  the  second,  that  of  "Pro- 
moted Men." 

Having  attained  the  rank  of  a  Promoted  Man,  the 
student  may  go  to  Peking  and  there  be  examined  for 
the  third  degree,  that  of  "Advanced  Scholar."  He 
who  takes  this  degree  becomes  "An  Expectant  of 
Office,"  and  is  sure,  sooner  or  later,  of  position, 
power,  and  riches. 

Many    strive    for    the    first    degree    until    they  are 


110  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

gray-haired,  and  fail  of  attaining  it;  while  others 
gain  the  third  even  in  youth.  It  is  said  that  "in 
these  degenerate  times,  it  is  not  as  it  was  of  old," 
and  that  money  often  secures  the  coveted  degree 
that  scholarship  fails  to  win. 


A    FAMILY    MEAL 


MEASURES   OF   TIME. 

TIME  is  the  one  good  of  which  all  men  have  the 
same  amount.  Other  valuable  possessions  are  un- 
equally distributed;  but  the  hours  are  of  like  length 
to  all.  The  use  of  time  is  ultimately  a  matter  of 
free  will,  and  constitutes  the  main  difference  be- 
tween the  weak  and  the  wise.  One  who  is  so  con- 
scientious as  to  hold  in  careful  regard  other  people's 
time,  is  evidently  on  the  road  to  perfection. 

The  Australian  savage  who  notes  only  day  and 
night,  and  the  European  who  habitually  carries  a 
watch  marking  the  seconds  of  which  he  heeds  the 
flight,  are  at  the  two  extremes  of  human  culture. 
The  Chinese  are  midway  between.  They  have  gone 
as  far  in  civilization  as  any  men  who  have  no 
clocks. 

Ill 


112  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

The  longest  fixed  measure  of  time  among  the 
Chinese  is  a  cycle  of  sixty  years,  invented  in  the 
reign  of  the  Emperor  Hwangti,  2637  years  before 
Christ.  This  sexagenary  cycle  is  the  only  Chinese 
measure  of  years,  and  is  used  not  only  throughout 
China,  but  by  the  Mongols,  the  Coreans,  the  Japa- 
nese, the  Loochooans,  the  Annamese,  and  the  Sia- 
mese. When  Tennyson  declares  fifty  years  in 
Europe  to  be  better  than  a  cycle  in  Cathay,  his 
affirmation  has  less  emphasis  than  he  intends,  and 
less  than  the  truth  warrants. 

The  seventy-fifth  great  cycle  ended  in  1863,  with 
the  4500th  year  of  Chinese  annals.  The  great  cycle 
is  made  up  of  six  cycles  of  ten,  called  stems,  and 
five  cycles  of  twelve,  called  branches,  the  stems  and 
branches  being  contemporaneous.  Each  year  is  desig- 
nated by  two  monosyllables,  the  first  of  which  denotes 
the  place  of  the  year  in  the  cycle  of  ten,  and  the 
second  of  which  denotes  the  place  of  the  year  in  the 
cycle  of  twelve.  The  ten  stems  have  a  dual  combi- 


MEASURES   OF   TIME.  113 

nation,  and  the  pairs  agree  respectively  with  the  five 
elements,  wood,  fire,  earth,  metal,  and  water,  and 
also  with  the  five  planets,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Saturn, 
Venus,  and  Mercury. 

The  names  of  the  twelve  branches  are  also  the 
names  of  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac,  of  the 
twelve  points  of  the  compass,  and  of  the  twelve 
hours  of  the  day.  Each  is  symbolized,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  be  dominated,  by  an  aninnl,  and  the  names 
of  these  animals  are  the  common  appellations  of  the 
years.  These  symbols  are  the  rat,  the  ox,  the  tiger, 
the  hare,  the  dragon,  the  serpent,  the  horse,  the 
goat,  the  ape,  the  cock,  the  dog,  and  the  boar.  If 
you  ask  a  Chinaman  in  what  year  he  was  born,  he 
is  apt  to  mention  only  the  name  of  the  animal  sym- 
bolizing his  branch,  and  to  leave  you  to  do  the 
necessary  reckoning.  The  stems  and  branches  are 
supposed  to  rule  individual  and  national  destiny, 
and  they  enter  into  complex  and  abstruse  geomantic 
and  astrological  calculations,  and  furnish  the  basis 


114  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

for  the  elaborate  operations  of  myriads  of  fortune- 
tellers and  soothsayers. 

Epistles  and  business  documents  are  dated  accord- 
ing to  the  year  of  the  reign  of  the  present  sover- 
eign. 

The  Chinese  year  contains  either  twelve  or  thir- 
teen months,  which  correspond  closely  with  the 
moon's  changes.  The  first  day  of  the  month  is  new 
moon;  the  middle  of  the  month,  full  moon;  and  the 
end  of  the  month,  old  moon.  There  are  either 
twenty-nine  or  thirty  days  in  a  month,  and  the 
number  of  days  in  a  certain  month  may  be  different 
in  different  years.  The  calendar  for  the  year  tells 
the  number  of  days  in  each  month  for  that  year; 
and  when  one  wishes  to  know  whether  there  are 
twenty-nine  or  thirty  days  in  the  month  he  inquires, 
saying,  "Is  this  month  a  greater  or  a  lesser  one?" 
One  year  in  every  three  has  an  intercalary  month, 
some  month  being  repeated,  and  called  the  second 
fifth  month,  or  the  second  eighth  month,  as  the  case 


MEASURES   OF   TIME.  115 

may  be.  Any  month,  except  the  first  or  the  twelfth, 
may  be  thus  repeated.  There  is  no  division  of  time 
into  weeks,  and  the  native  Christian  keeps  his  Sab- 
bath in  the  midst  of  a  populace  pursuing  week-day 
avocations.  Days  are  designated  solely  by  their  order 
in  the  month,  as  first,  second,  third,  etc. 

Holidays  are  numerous,  and  certain  trades  cele- 
brate on  special  days  the  birth  of  illustrious  founders 
or  of  patron  saints.  There  are  also  many  local 
festivals,  beside  the  seven  great  feasts  kept  by 
the  whole  nation.  The  New  Year  is  universally 
observed;  for  he  who  would  be  prosperous  during 
the  entire  year  must,  on  its  first  day,  wear  new 
clothes,  eat  good  food,  hear  only  cheering  words, 
and  think  only  happy  thoughts.  As  it  takes  several 
days  to  prepare  for,  and  several  days  to  recover 
from,  the  enjoyment  of  New  Year's,  there  is  an 
utter  cessation  of  other  business  for  about  two  weeks 
at  this  festival.  Then  follows  the  feasts  of  the  full 
moon  of  the  first,  fifth,  seventh,  and  eighth  months, 


116  A   CORNER    OF    CATHAY. 

and  the  vernal  and  autumnal  equinoxes.  At  all 
the  festivals  there  is  much  worshipping  of  the  gods, 
with  offerings  of  spirit-money  and  edibles.  Indeed, 
all  the  festivals  are  nominally  in  honour  of  the 
deities,  and  every  pious  native  observes  them.  Un- 
happily, among  the  Chinese,  and  some  other  people, 
probity  is  not  in  direct  ratio  to  piety.  The  devout- 
est  pagan  is  not  the  most  trustworthy.  The  days, 
beginning  at  11  o'clock  P.M.,  are  divided  into 
twelve  periods.  These  two-hour  periods  are  again 
divided  each  into  eight  periods.  This  period,  fifteen 
minutes  in  length,  is  the  shortest  fixed  Chinese 
measure  of  time. 

Contrivances  for  marking  the  time  are  few  and 
simple.  In  the  city  of  Canton  there  is  a  very 
ancient  bronze  clepsydra,  in  which  the  water  leaks 
from  a  large  ornate  vase,  and  fills  a  smaller  vase  in 
just  two  hours,  while  the  leakage  from  the  lesser 
vase  fills  one  an  eighth  as  large  in  just  fifteen 
minutes.  Portable  sun-dials  are  common  in  the 


MEASURES   OF  TIME.  117 

shops,  and  so  must  be  in  demand,  though  they  are 
not  often  seen  in  practical  use.  The  dial  is  a 
square  box,  a  few  inches  across,  with  a  compass  in 
the  centre.  When  opened  in  the  sunshine,  and  so 
placed  that  the  needle  points  south,  the  raised  lid 
of  the  box  casts  a  shadow  on  a  disk  surrounding  the 
compass  and  bearing  lines  which  denote  the  time  of 
day. 

When  the  sun  is  visible,  the  Chinese  judge  very 
accurately  of  the  time  by  its  altitude.  Short  periods 
are  indicated  in  speech  by  all  sorts  of  familiar  inci- 
dents, such  as,  "The  time  it  takes  to  eat  a  meal," 
or,  "As  long  as  it  takes  an  incense-stick  to  burn 
out."  Hour  and  minute  glasses  are  unknown;  but 
pastilles  are  sometimes  burned,  when  brief  similar 
periods  of  time  need  to  be  marked.  Medicines  are 
not  usually  administered  at  exact  intervals,  nor  in 
the  night.  I  once  had  occasion  to  insist  on  some 
doses  of  medicine  being  given  during  the  night,  at 
intervals  of  exactly  two  hours.  There  was,  in  the 


118  A   CORNER    OF    CATHAY. 

family,  no  visible  means  of  ascertaining  the  time, 
but  I  was  earnestly  assured  by  the  relatives  of  the 
patient  that  the  medicine  would  be  given  at  the 
required  moment.  After  considerable  insistence  on 
my  part,  the  old  mother,  acting  as  nurse,  endeav- 
oured to  alleviate  my  anxiety  by  informing  me  that 
she  had  a  reliable  means  of  knowing  the  time  of 
night,  for,  like  everybody  else,  she  was  acquainted 
with  the  fact  that  she  breathed  through  her  two 
nostrils  alternately,  the  change  from  one  nostril  to 
the  other  being  made  exactly  on  the  hour!  I  have 
been  gravely  assured  by  the  Chinese  that  they  respire 
through  the  right  nostril  from  11  P.M.  to  1  A.M., 
and  then  through  the  left  nostril  from  1  A.M.  to  3 
A.M.,  and  so  011  throughout  the  hours,  both  nostrils 
giving  exit  to  the  air  just  at  the  passing  of  one 
hour  into  the  next. 

American  clocks  are  now  generally  seen  among  the 
bric-a-brac  of  wealthy  Chinamen;  but  the  masses  of 
the  people  have  no  time-pieces.  As  a  consequence, 


MEASURES   OF   TIME.  119 

appointments  are  made  with  a  broad  margin  for  wait- 
ing, and  he  who  meets  one  within  an  hour  or  two 
of  the  time  fixed,  is  thought  to  practise  that  punct- 
uality which  is  the  politeness  of  princes. 


LEGAL   PROCESSES. 

A  COMMON  saying  of  the  underlings  that  swarm 
in  a  yamun,  the  official  residence  of  a  Chinese  mag- 
istrate, is  that  "Rice  does  not  grow  on  a  court-house 
pavement."  That  means  that  clients  who  expect  to 
have  business  attended  to,  must  provide  the  consta- 
bles with  means  of  subsistence.  The  yamun  is  a 
spot  where  two  common  proverbs  are  verified.  The 
one  is  that  "When  the  moneyless  speak,  the  hearer 
hastens  away,"  and  the  other  is  that  "If  you  have 
enough  money,  you  can  hire  a  demon  to  turn  your 
mill."  Success  needs  be  certain  before  a  suit  is 
entered  upon,  for  "If  you  hit  a  tiger  and  do  not  kill 
him,  you  become  his  prey." 

There  are  fixed  days,  four  or  five  in  each  month, 
when  complaints  may  be  legally  entered  at  the 

120 


LEGAL   PROCESSES.  121 

yamun.  By  force  of  bribery  they  can  also  be 
entered  upon  other  days,  and  be  pressed  so  rapidly 
on  their  course  as  to  take  the  defendant  unprepared 
and  at  great  disadvantage.  Any  one  who  wishes  to 
bring  a  suit  before  the  magistrate,  first  buys,  for 
about  five  cents,  a  sheet  of  paper  bearing  the  official 
stamp  of  the  incumbent.  He  then  goes  to  a  scribe 
known  to  be  competent,  and  for  a  dollar  or  more, 
gets  him  to  write  the  complaint  in  terse  phrases. 
He  then  takes  it  to  a  certain  bureau  in  the  yamun, 
where  a  clerk  reads  it  and  stamps  it,  for  a  fee  of 
forty  cents  and  upward,  depending  on  its  importance. 
If  the  statement  is  not  clear,  if  the  case  be  compli- 
cated, or  if  the  payment  be  reckoned  insufficient, 
the  clerk  declines  to  forward  the  paper  to  the  magis- 
trate. If  the  plaintiff  be  destitute  of  money  or  of 
social  influence,  his  suit  will  strand  in  the  first 
bureau.  If  he  be  rich  and  powerful,  and  the  charge 
be  against  any  one  who  has  personal  acquaintances 
in  the  yamun,  the  defendant  will  receive  unofficial 


122  A   COKNER    OF    CATHAY. 

information  of  the  complaint,  and  the  case  will  be 
settled  privately.  If  the  defendant  apprehends  the 
entering  of  a  charge  against  him,  he  prepays  some 
one  in  the  yamun  to  remain  on  the  watch  for  it 
and  send  him  a  copy  of  the  complaint  as  soon  as 
it  is  entered.  He  then  has  time  to  prepare  for  the 
fray,  if  he  decides  on  battle. 

The  amount  of  money  given  to  the  underlings  of 
the  court  determines  the  speed  with  which  the  com- 
plaint reaches  the  hands  of  the  magistrate;  and  then 
if  there  be  no  personal  gain  in  the  case,  the  magis- 
trate gives  the  plea  no  attention,  plaintiffs  being 
many  and  lucrative  business  pressing. 

The  plaintiff  then  enters  in  the  same  way  another 
complaint,  backed  up  with  more  money,  and  perhaps 
by  influential  allies  whose  interest  he  has  managed 
to  secure.  When  the  pressure  from  outside  has 
become  so  strong  as  to  force  action,  the  magistrate 
sends  from  four  to  seven  constables  to  the  house  of 
the  defendant,  and  these  emissaries  quickly  measure 


LEGAL   PKOCESSES.  123 

the  breadth  of  the  opportunity  for  plunder.  Even  the 
poorest  can  be  made  to  yield  some  sort  of  profit,  ac- 
cording to  the  saying,  "  If  chaff  is  squeezed  with  suffi- 
cient force,  it  will  yield  oil."  The  family  usually 
flees  on  the  appearance  of  the  constables,  and  the 
latter  smash  dishes  and  break  furniture  till  some 
responsible  negotiator  presents  himself.  The  consta- 
bles then  declare  their  intention  of  hauling  to  prison 
a  certain  member  of  the  household.  That  individual 
is  always  absent,  and  is  said  to  be  visiting  a  distant 
relative,  or  to  have  gone  abroad  on  business.  A 
bribe  and  a  breakfast  is  offered,  but  the  harpies  are 
not  easily  appeased.  They  bluster,  poke  holes  with 
their  staves  in  the  tile  roofing,  batter  the  iron  pans, 
dislocate  the  tables,  and  threaten  arrest,  till  a  sum 
of  money,  as  large  as  the  afflicted  family  can,  by 
begging,  borrowing,  and  pawning,  scrape  together, 
is  handed  over  to  them.  Meantime,  they  are  invited 
to  smoke  opium;  a  fowl  is  caught  and  put  in  the 
pot;  pork  and  wine  are  bought,  and  a  meal,  that 


124  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

must  not  be  less  than  a  banquet,  is  served  to  them. 
Not  until  they  have  wrung  the  utmost  possible  out 
of  their  victims,  can  they  be  induced  to  depart. 

If  they  are  received  instantly,  with  speedy  dole  of 
viands,  opium,  and  silver  enough  to  constitute  what 
they  consider  a  reasonable  as  well  as  seasonable 
offering,  they  may  return  to  the  yamun  and  report 
that  there  is  no  cause  for  action  in  the  case. 

Should  the  accused  at  once  allow  himself  to  be 
dragged  to  the  unspeakable  filth  and  horror  of  a 
Chinese  prison,  he  would  have  no  food  beside  what 
his  relatives  could  bring  him,  and  he  might  remain 
there  for  years,  untried,  but  already  condemned, 
and  fully  in  the  power  of  his  enemies.  No  one 
thinks  of  suffering  arrest  as  an  alternative  from  the 
exactions  of  the  yamun-runners. 

If,  after  the  first  visit  of  the  constables,  no  counter- 
charge is  entered  at  the  yamun,  their  visits  are  re- 
peated until  the  family  is  ruined.  The  counter- 
statement  is  entered  in  the  same  manner  as  was  the 


LEGAL   PROCESSES. 


125 


complaint,  and  with  like  expenses.  The  constables 
then  turn  their  attention  to  the  plaintiff,  who  goes 
through  a  process  similar  to  that  suffered  by  his 
opponent.  He  expostulates,  feeds,  and  fees  them 
till  they  pocket  their  warrant  for  his  arrest,  and  go 
back  to  the  yamun  with  a  report  favourable  to  their 
last  client.  He  then  sends  another  written  com- 
plaint to  the  magistrate,  and  the  whole  programme 
is  repeated,  again  and  again,  till  one  party  or  the 
other  succumbs.  The  suit  is  a  sort  of  wrestling- 
match,  in  which  the  strongest  must  finally  win. 
Justice  has  no  influence  in  the  result.  It  is  not 
therefore  strange  that  every  Chinaman  wishes  above 
all  things  to  belong  to  a  powerful  guild,  in  which 
mutual  interests  will  impel  every  member  to  put 
forth  his  strength  for  the  common  weal,  and  in 
which  the  united  force  of  the  organization  shall  be 
sufficient  to  protect  each  constituent. 

The  party  that  is  first  worn   out   in   the   struggle, 
or    who    first    foresees    his    own    failure,  engages    an 


126  A    CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

agent  who  acts  as  a  mediator  between  the  contest- 
ants ;  and  sooner  or  later  an  agreement  is  made  for  the 
settlement  of  the  case.  The  defendant  then  engages 
an  advocate,  usually  a  petty  official,  to  withdraw 
the  case  from  court.  He  invites  his  advocate  to  a 
supper,  and  under  his  advice  offers  the  yamun- 
officers  a  certain  number  of  repasts,  in  compensation 
for  the  trouble  his  case  has  given  them.  The  repasts 
are  represented  by  money,  and  are  reckoned  at  about 
ten  dollars  a  meal.  The  poor  man  must  pay  several 
tens,  the  rich  man  several  hundreds,  of  dollars,  as 
cost  of  withdrawal  from  court.  The  advocate  must 
also  receive  compensation,  including  a  present  of  a 
pair  of  shoes,  to  replace  those  he  is  supposed  to  have 
worn  out  in  running  to  and  fro  upon  his  client's 
business. 

When  no  settlement  outside  the  court  appears 
possible,  then  the  whole  effort  of  each  litigant  is  to 
get  his  opponent  brought  before  the  magistrate.  To 
accomplish  this,  he  must  fee  the  constables  till  they 


LEGAL    PROCESSES.  127 

bring  the  prisoner.  The  one  who  knows  himself  to 
be  in  the  wrong,  strives  by  every  means  in  his 
power  to  avoid  confronting  his  accuser.  If  the  trial 
is  actually  brought  about,  both  endeavour  to  get 
influential  friends  to  accompany  them  into  court,  and 
to  appear  as  important  as  possible  in  the  eyes  of  the 
magistrate.  The  two  litigants  kneel  before  the 
magistrate,  who  is  himself  statute,  jury,  and  judge. 
Each  suitor  personally  presents  his  side  of  the  ques- 
tion at  issue.  Witnesses  may  be  summoned,  and 
may  be  separately  tortured  till  they  tell  the  truth. 
At  the  end  of  the  examination,  the  judge  throws 
down  a  tally  on  which  is  marked  the  number  of 
blows  the  culprit  is  to  receive,  or  else  gives  severer 
sentence.  Blows,  banishment,  and  decapitation  are 
the  three  methods  of  punishment  for  ordinary  crimes. 
The  popular  dread  of  legal  processes  is  expressed 
in  many  current  sayings,  such  as,  "It  is  better  to 
live  on  garbage  than  to  go  to  law  " ;  "  To  win  a  law- 
suit reduces  one  to  penury";  "If  you  consort  with 


128  A  COENEK   OF  CATHAY. 

beggars,  you  may  have  a  handful  of  rice  given  to 
you,  but  if  you  go  among  lawyers,  you  will  lose 
your  last  coin." 

As  a  rule,  no  official  attention  is  given  to  any 
crime  until  demand  is  made  by  the  wronged;  and 
the  gaining  of  protection  from  the  magistrate  depends 
on  the  acumen  with  which  the  case  is  set  before 
him. 

On  a  plain  that  I  have  often  traversed,  north  of 
Swatow,  there  was,  a  few  years  ago,  a  little  village 
inhabited  by  a  small  and  weak  clan,  surnamed  Stone. 
There  were  twelve  neighbouring  villages,  chiefly  of 
the  Plum  clan,  and  these  all  combined  against  the 
Stones,  whom  they  far  outnumbered.  The  Stones 
planted  and  watered  their  crops,  and  the  Plums 
reaped  the  harvest.  There  were  perpetual  raids  on 
the  property  of  the  Stones,  and  they,  having  no 
redress  for  their  wrongs,  were  in  danger  of  utter 
extinction.  But  they  had  among  them  one  scholar, 
a  literary  graduate  of  the  first  degree,  and  when  a 


LEGAL   PROCESSES.  129 

new  magistrate  came  into  office  at  the  head  of  the 
Department,  this  scholar  wrote  an  appeal  to  him  for 
help,  as  follows :  — 

The  great  clans  Plum  make  one  small  clan,  surnamed  the  Stones, 

their  prey ; 

The  haughty  Plums,  in  twelve  large  villages,  in  strong  array, 
Surround  the  lone,  weak  hamlet  of  the  Stones.     They  spoil  their 

fields 

Of  ripened  grain  ;  their  watch  dogs  kill ;  their  cattle  lead  away ; 
Their  children  kidnap  and  harass  ;  their  women  put  to  shame ; 
And  seize  and  hold  their  men  in  durance  till  they  ransom  pay. 
Unless  you  soon  redress  our  wrongs,  the  village  of  the  Stones 
Will  have  no  habitant.     Oh  !  Sire,  we  wait  you,  night  and  day ! 

The  magistrate  was  impressed  by  this  appeal,  and 
prepared  to  make  official  inquiry  into  the  case.  The 
Plums  heard  of  it,  and  feared.  In  order  to  properly 
offset  the  charge  against  them,  another  paper  as  good 
as  the  first,  a  counter-statement  to  the  complaint, 
must  be  sent  to  the  magistrate.  And  who  could 
write  it  so  well  as  this  same  scholar  of  the  Stone 
clan?  Their  messenger  secretly  approached  him  with 


130  A   CORNER    OF    CATHAY. 

a   sufficient   sum    of   money,  and   he  was    induced  to 
indite  the  following  defence  for  the  Plums :  — 

One  village  with  another  vies,  and  each  its  strength  displays 
As  rival  of  its  neighbour.     Clans  of  Plum  and  Stone,  each  sways 
Its  region.     Though  the  Plums  be  many,  and  the  Stones  be  few, 
A  single  stone,  if  great  enough,  ten  thousand  plums  outweighs. 

When  this  had  been  secretly  transferred  to  the 
Plums,  and  by  them  sent  to  the  magistrate,  he 
admitted  that  the  possession  of  an  astute  and  accom- 
plished scholar  gave  the  Stones  sufficient  power  over 
their  enemies,  and  so  he  decided  to  take  no  immedi- 
ate measures  in  their  behalf.  The  clans  Plum  con- 
tinued to  oppress  the  Stones  until  the  latter  were 
nearly  exterminated.  Many  of  the  Stones  had  en- 
tered other  clans,  taking  other  names;  some  had  gone 
into  voluntary  exile  in  distant  cities,  and  others  had 
fled  to  foreign  lands.  The  women  and  children 
died,  or  were  sold  into  more  powerful  tribes,  and  at 
last  none  of  the  clan  Stone  remained  except  the 
family  of  the  one  great  scholar.  As  the  Plums 


LEGAL   PROCESSES.  131 

acknowledged  him  as  a  benefactor,  he  was  rich  and 
influential.  The  Plums,  conscious  of  a  debt  to  him, 
but  in  mortal  fear  of  his  trenchant  pen,  and  know- 
ing that  he  could  at  any  time  be  bribed  to  use  his 
talents  against  them,  decided  to  do  him  justice. 
They  gave  him  an  ovation.  For  three  days  they 
carried  him  about,  in  rich  array,  and  in  an  open 
sedan-chair,  as  they  carry  their  gods.  They  feasted 
him,  praised  him,  and  then  slew  him.  They  consid- 
ered that  they  thus  duly  acknowledged  and  rewarded 
his  merit,  and  also  punished  and  prevented  his  sins. 
Now  the  clan  Stone  no  longer  exists,  and  the  place 
of  their  habitation  knows  them  no  more. 


FABULOUS   ANIMALS. 

OF  the  many  fabulous  animals  having  their  habitat 
in  the  Mongolian  mind,  none  is  more  completely 
domesticated  and  universally  believed  in  than  is  the- 
Dragon,  represented  upon  the  national  flag,  giving 
name  to  the  throne,  and  having  numberless  images 
in  temples.  It  is  the  symbol  of  power  and  majesty, 
the  expression  of  authority  and  dignity. 

The  Chinese  Neptunes,  the  Sea-Dragon  Kings, 
live  in  gorgeous  palaces  in  the  depths  of  the  sea. 
where  they  feed  on  pearls  and  opals.  There  are  five 
of  these  divinities,  the  chief  being  in  the  centre,  and 
the  other  four  occupying  the  north,  the  west,  the 
south,  and  the  east.  Each  is  a  league  in  length, 
and  so  bulky  that  in  shifting  its  posture  it  tosses 
one  mountain  against  another.  It  has  five  feet,  one 

132 


THE    HOLE-IN-THE-CHEST    PEOPLE 


FABULOUS  ANIMALS.  133 

of  them  being  in  the  middle  of  its  belly,  and  each 
foot  is  armed  with  five  sharp  claws.  It  can  reach 
into  the  heavens,  and  stretch  itself  into  all  quarters 
of  the  sea.  It  has  a  glowing  armour  of  yellow 
scales,  a  beard  under  its  long  snout,  a  hairy  tail, 
and  shaggy  legs.  Its  forehead  projects  over  its  blaz- 
ing eyes,  its  ears  are  small  and  thick,  its  mouth 
gaping,  its  tongue  long,  and  its  teeth  sharp.  Fish 
are  boiled  by  the  blast  of  its  breath,  and  roasted  by 
the  fiery  exhalations  of  its  body.  When  it  rises  to 
the  surface,  the  whole  ocean  surges,  waterspouts 
form,  and  typhoons  rage.  When  it  flies,  wingless, 
through  the  air,  the  winds  howl,  torrents  of  rain 
descend,  houses  are  unroofed,  the  firmament  is  filled 
with  a  din,  and  whatever  lies  along  its  route  is 
swept  away  with  a  roar  in  the  hurricane  created  by 
the  speed  of  its  passage. 

The  five  Sea-Dragon  Kings  are  all  immortal.  They 
know  each  other's  thoughts,  plans,  and  wishes  with- 
out intercommunication.  Like  all  the  other  gods  they 


134  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

go  once  a  year  to  the  superior  heavens,  to  make  an 
annual  report  to  the  Supreme  Ruler;  but  they  go  in 
the  third  month,  at  which  time  none  of  the  other 
gods  dare  appear,  and  their  stay  above  is  but  brief. 
They  generally  remain  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean, 
where  their  courts  are  filled  with  their  progeny, 
their  dependants,  and  their  attendants,  and  where 
the  gods  and  genii  sometimes  visit  them.  Their 
palaces,  of  divers-coloured  transparent  stones,  with 
crystal  doors,  are  said  to  have  been  seen  in  the  early 
morning  by  persons  gazing  into  the  deep  waters. 
A  fine  Chinese  scholar  of  my  acquaintance,  a  gradu- 
ate, gravely  assured  me  that  he  had  seen  a  dragon 
moving  through  the  heavens,  in  a  storm,  and  that 
he  had  had  a  distinct,  though  distant,  view  of  its 
tail!  To  see  one  indicates  good  luck,  and  they  are 
seldom  seen  by  any  but  the  righteous.  It  is  said 
that  fish  and  serpents  that  live  to  a  vast  age  are 
finally  transformed  into  dragons. 

Another    animal,    frequently    represented    in     bas- 


FABULOUS   ANIMALS.  135 

relief  on  the  walls  of  temples,  and  supposed  to  ap- 
pear only  when  a  sage  is  born,  is  the  Chinese  uni- 
corn. It  has  a  body  like  a  deer,  with  the  head  and 
tail  of  a  lion.  It  has  a  horn  on  its  forehead,  and  is 
often  pictured  with  the  eight  precious  writing-imple- 
ments under  its  feet.  One  appeared  in  the  time  of 
Confucius,  and  the  boors  who  saw  it  killed  it,  say- 
ing, "It  is  neither  tiger,  ox,  nor  pig."  Confucius 
saw  its  dead  body  and  bemoaned  its  being  so  un- 
common that  no  one  had  recognized  it. 

The  well-known  Phoenix  lives  among  mountains, 
and  lays  cubical  eggs.  It  is  several  feet  high,  and 
has  a  long  neck,  long  legs,  and  a  long,  plumy  tail. 
It  has  resplendent,  variegated  plumage,  slim  wings, 
a  sharp  tongue,  and  gleaming  eyes.  It  gazes  at  the 
sun  and  moon,  facing  east  by  day,  and  west  by 
night.  Its  voice  is  flute-like,  and  when  it  calls, 
tigers  flee  away,  and  all  birds  assemble  around  it,  to 
do  obeisance.  Its  nest  has  never  been  found,  though 
its  young  have  been  seen.  It  only  appears  when  a 


136  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

wise  sovereign  is  about  to  be  born.  It  affiliates  with 
the  dragon,  and  dragons  are  sometimes  hatched  from 
its  eggs. 

I  have  several  times  been  asked  by  uneducated 
Mongolians  whether  I  had  ever  visited  the  country 
inhabited  exclusively  by  women.  I  have  even  been 
suspected  of  being  a  native  of  that  land,  commonly 
known  as  "The  Women's  Kingdom."  It  is  said  to 
be  surrounded  by  a  sea  of  lesser  density  than  ordi- 
nary water,  so  that  ships  sink  on  approaching  its 
shores.  It  has  been  reached  only  by  boats  carried 
thither  in  whirlwinds,  and  but  few  of  those  wrecked 
on  its  rocks  have  survived  and  returned  to  tell  of 
its  wonders.  The  women  have  houses,  gardens,  and 
shops.  Instead  of  money,  they  use  gems,  perforated 
and  strung  like  beads.  They  reproduce  their  kind 
by  sleeping  where  the  south  wind  blows  upon  them. 

Another  foreign  nation  is  said  to  be  made  up  of 
people  who  have  holes  through  their  chests.  They  can 
be  carried  about  on  a  pole  put  through  the  orifice, 


FABULOUS   ANIMALS.  137 

or  may  be  comfortably  hung  upon  a  peg.  They 
sometimes  string  themselves  on  a  rope,  and  thus 
walk  out  in  file.  They  are  harmless  people,  and 
eat  snakes  that  they  kill  with  bows  and  arrows,  and 
they  are  very  long  lived. 

The  long-eared  people  resemble  the  Chinese  in  all 
except  their  ears.  They  live  in  the  far  West  among 
mountains  and  in  caves.  Their  pendant,  flabby  ears 
extend  to  the  ground,  and  would  impede  their  feet 
in  walking  if  they  did  not  support  them  on  their 
hands. 

The  feathered  people  are  very  tall,  and  are  covered 
with  fluffy  down.  They  have  wings  in  place  of 
arms,  and  can  fly  short  distances.  On  the  points  of 
the  wings  are  claws,  which  serve  as  hands.  They 
are  gentle  and  timid,  and  do  not  leave  their  own 
country.  They  have  good  voices,  and  like  to  sing 
ballads.  If  one  wishes  to  visit  that  nation,  he  must 
go  far  to  the  southeast  and  then  inquire. 

The  pigmies  inhabit  many  mountainous   regions  of 


138  A    CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

the  empire,  but  are  few  in  number.  They  are  less 
than  nine  inches  high,  but  are  well  formed.  They 
live  in  thatched  houses,  that  resemble  ants'  nests. 
When  they  walk  out,  they  go  in  companies  of  from 
six  to  ten,  joining  hands  in  a  line,  for  mutual  pro- 
tection against  birds  that  might  carry  them  away,  or 
other  creatures  that  might  impose  upon  them.  A 
husband  and  wife  usually  go  about  hand  in  hand. 
A  Hakka  charcoal-burner  once  found  three  of  the 
children  playing  in  his  tobacco-box.  He  kept  them 
there,  and  afterward,  when  he  was  showing  them  to 
a  friend,  he  laughed  so  that  drops  of  saliva  flew  from 
his  mouth  and  shot  two  of  them  dead.  He  then 
begged  his  friend  to  take  the  third  and  put  it  in  a 
place  of  safety  before  he  should  laugh  again.  His 
friend  undertook  to  lift  it  from  the  box,  but  it  died 
on  being  touched. 


PYGMIES    OUT    FOR    A    WALK 


SUNDRY   SUPERSTITIONS. 

THE  superstitious  beliefs  and  observances  of  the 
Chinese  are  numberless,  and  they  occupy  more  or 
less  the  time  and  mind  of  every  individual  in  the 
nation.  Those  here  recorded  are  common  among 
the  people  near  Swatow.  I  am  unable  to  say  how 
many  of  them  are  purely  local. 

When  a  child  is  just  one  month  old,  the  mother, 
carrying  it  in  a  scarf  on  her  back,  induces  it  to 
look  down  into  a  well.  This  is  supposed  to  have 
a  mentally  invigorating  effect,  producing  courage 
and  deepening  the  understanding. 

A  mother  feeds  her  young  infant  from  a  cup 
rather  than  from  a  bowl  or  plate,  because  a  bowl, 
being  capacious,  has  an  occult  influence  in  making 
the  child  a  large  eater;  while  a  plate,  being  shal- 

139 


140  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

low,  causes  him  to  throw  up  his  food  on  slight  provo- 
cation. The  cup,  being  small  and  deep,  insures  his 
taking  but  little  food,  and  keeping  it  for  assimilation. 

When  a  child  becomes  ill,  the  mother  gathers 
thorns  from  twelve  species  of  plants  and  makes  an 
infusion  in  which  she  washes  the  child,  hoping  to 
wash  the  disease,  with  the  demon  that  produces  it, 
into  the  water.  She  then  carries  the  water  to  an 
open  space  where  many  people  go  to  and  fro,  and 
there  throws  it  upon  the  ground.  As  she  goes  from 
her  own  house,  the  inhabitants  of  the  streets  she 
traverses  shut  their  doors,  to  prevent  the  disease 
from  entering  their  abodes.  A  woman  of  my  ac- 
quaintance recently  told  me  that,  having  no  fear 
of  demons,  she  did  not  shut  her  door  when  a  neigh- 
bour passed  her  house  carrying  water  in  which  a 
child  having  fever  and  ague  had  just  been  washed, 
and  the  very  next  day  she  herself  had  chills  ! 

If  a  child  falls  from  a  high  place  to  the  ground, 
spirit-money  is  immediately  burned  upon  the  spot  by 


SUNDRY   SUPERSTITIONS.  141 

the  mother,  to  propitiate  the  demon  who  is  trying 
to  pull  the  child  down  to  destruction. 

When  a  child  has  fallen,  there  is  danger  that  he 
may  have  left  his  twelve  wits  in  the  earth  on  which 
he  fell,  so  the  mother  at  once  makes  with  her 
empty  hand  the  motion  of  dipping  from  the  ground 
to  the  child's  chest.  Thus  she  replaces  in  the  child 
what  might  otherwise  be  permanently  lost  in  the  soil. 
If  a  man  falls  into  a  cesspool  or  well,  a  long-handled 
dipper  is  used  to  dip  out  and  restore  to  his  bosom 
his  scattered  senses ;  then  three  sheets  of  spirit- 
money  are  thrown  burning  into  the  well,  and  a  heavy 
stone  is  cast  after  it. 

It  is  unlucky  to  leave  much  hair  on  a  boy's  head 
when  he  is  old  enough  to  wear  a  queue ;  there- 
fore the  head  should  be  shaved  so  as  to  leave  but 
a  small  patch  on  the  crown.  Abundant  hair  is 
symbolic  of  a  burden  on  the  head,  and  a  heavy 
queue  may  soon  bring  the  care  of  the  family  upon 
the  boy  through  the  death  of  his  father. 


142  A   COKNER   OF   CATHAY. 

During  the  month  succeeding  the  birth  of  a  child 
the  mother  must  not  cross  the  threshold  of  another 
person's  room.  Should  she  do  this,  she  will  endanger 
the  welfare  of  the  occupants,  and  in  her  next  life 
she  will  perpetually  scrub  the  floor  of  the  room 
entered. 

A  girl  who  is  partaking  of  the  last  meal  she  is  to 
eat  in  her  father's  house  previous  to  her  marriage, 
sits  at  the  table  with  her  parents  and  brothers ;  but 
she  must  eat  no  more  than  half  the  bowl  of  rice  set 
before  her,  else  her  departure  will  be  followed  by  con- 
tinual scarcity  in  the  domicile  she  is  leaving. 

If  a  bride  breaks  the  heel  of  her  shoe  in  going 
from  her  father's  to  her  husband's  house,  it  is  omi- 
nous of  unhappiness  in  her  new  relations. 

A  piece  of  bacon  and  a  parcel  of  sugar  are  hung 
on  the  back  of  a  bride's  sedan-chair  as  a  sop  to  the 
demons  who  might  molest  her  while  on  her  journey. 
The  "  Three  Baneful  Ones "  are  fond  of  salt  and 
spices,  and  the  "  White  Tiger "  likes  sweets. 


SUNDRY   SUPERSTITIONS.  143 

A  bride  may  be  brought  home  while  a  coffin  is  in 
her  husband's  house,  but  not  within  one  hundred  days 
after  a  coffin  is  carried  out.  Domestic  troubles  are 
sure  to  come  upon  one  who  is  married  within  a 
hundred  days  after  a  funeral. 

A  bride,  while  putting  on  her  wedding  garments, 
stands  in  a  round,  shallow  basket.  This  conduces 
to  her  leading  a  placid,  well-rounded  life  in  her 
future  home.  After  her  departure  from  her  father's 
door,  her  mother  puts  the  basket  over  the  mouth  of 
the  oven,  to  stop  the  mouths  of  all  who  would  make 
adverse  comment  on  her  daughter,  and  then  sits 
down  before  the  kitchen  range,  that  her  peace  and 
leisure  may  be  duplicated  in  her  daughter's  life. 

A  bride  must  not,  for  four  months  after  her  mar- 
riage, enter  any  house  in  which  there  has  recently 
been  a  death  or  a  birth ;  for  if  she  does,  there  will 
surely  be  a  quarrel  between  her  and  the  groom.  If  a 
young  mother  goes  to  see  a  bride,  the  visitor  is  looked 
upon  as  the  cause  of  any  calamity  that  may  follow. 


144  A   CORNER   OP   CATHAY. 

One  who  has  ordered  a  coffin  must  guide  its 
bearers  by  the  shortest  road  to  the  house  in  which 
the  corpse  lies.  The  bearers  of  an  empty  coffin  may 
not  inquire  their  way  at  any  house  nor  of  any 
person.  To  mistake  the  road  when  carrying  a  coffin, 
or  to  take  it  to  any  house  other  than  that  where  it 
is  wanted,  brings  terrible  misfortunes  on  persons 
thereby  disturbed.  Any  insult  may  with  impunity 
be  offered  to  coffin-sellers  who  mistake  the  destination 

* 

of  their  goods. 

One  should  not  catch  butterflies,  since  departed 
spirits  frequently  incorporate  themselves  in  these  in- 
sects, and  flit  back  to  see  what  is  being  done  in 
their  old  dwelling.  A  man  is  known  to  have  died 
the  day  after  killing  a  butterfly. 

When  a  cow's  tooth  is  found  in  a  field,  it  is  put 
on  a  shelf  with  the  gods,  and  keeps  demons  from 
entering  the  house. 

If,  when  one  is  under  the  open  sky,  a  bird  drops 
excrement  upon  one,  the  omen  is  bad,  and  must  be 


SUNDRY  SUPERSTITIONS.  145 

immediately  offset  by  going  to  persons  of  three  dif- 
ferent surnames,  all  unlike  one's  own,  and  begging  a 
little  rice  to  eat. 

If  one  who  is  walking  along  a  road  has  a  sudden 
attack  of  colic,  he  procures  three  paper  bags  that  have 
held  incense,  and  burns  them  on  the  spot  where 
he  was  when  he  began  to  feel  the  pain,  to  pacify  the 
demon  of  the  locality.  A  demon's  day  is  man's 
night,  and  man's  day  is  a  demon's  night;  therefore 
candles  are  lighted  when  offerings  are  made  to 
demons  by  daylight. 

If  a  fly  falls  into  the  porridge,  if  a  magpie  chat- 
ters on  the  roof,  or  if  two  chickens  fight,  it  is  a 
sign  that  a  guest  is  coming. 

A  cock  that  crows  before  midnight  foretells  a 
death  in  the  family.  Spirit-money  must  be  burned, 
a  hoop  must  be  put  in  the  front  door  at  its  top, 
and  the  crowing  fowl  must  be  given  away  or  sold. 
No  one  would  knowingly  buy  a  fowl  that  crowed 
before  midnight,  and,  if  it  were  sold,  no  one  would 
dare  use  the  cash  received  for  it. 


146  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

When  a  person  commits  suicide  by  hanging,  the 
beam  from  which  the  body  hung  is  cut  out  from 
the  roof  and  burned,  or  thrown  into  the  river,  to  be 
carried  away  by  the  current.  The  floor  underneath 
the  feet  of  the  hanging  corpse  is  also  dug  up  and 
replaced  by  new  material.  Thus  the  evil  influence 
which  would  inhere  in  the  spot  is  eradicated  from 
the  house. 

If  a  pot  of  money  is  found,  a  rice-flour  cake  is 
put  in  the  place  of  each  coin  taken,  and  spirit-money 
is  burned  as  an  offering  to  any  spirit  that  might  be 
irritated  by  the  removal  of  the  treasure. 

No  one  picks  up  a  girdle  found  in  the  road,  through 
fear  that  some  one  may  have  been  hung  by  it,  and 
that  the  spirit  may  follow  and  worry  the  possessor. 
If  a  single  coin  or  other  article  is  found,  it  is  picked 
up  with  fear;  but  if  a  pair  or  an  even  number  of 
things  be  found,  they  are  taken  without  anxiety,  fdr 
odd  numbers  are  unlucky,  while  even  numbers  are 
lucky.  Three  is  a  particularly  unlucky  number. 


SUNDRY   SUPERSTITIONS.  147 

Three  persons,  therefore,  never  sit  together  at  a  table, 
and  no  couple  marries  when  there  are  six  years  of 
difference  in  age,  because  six  is  twice  three. 

It  is  not  considered  respectable  for  an  old  man 
to  be  without  a  beard,  nor  for  a  young  man  to  wear 
one.  A  youth  who  puts  on  an  air  of  wisdom  is 
called  a  beardless  old  man.  When  a  man  decides  to 
let  his  beard  grow,  his  sons  and  sons-in-law  make  a 
feast  for  him,  and  congratulate  him  on  his  longevity. 
No  one  who  has  once  grown  a  beard  cuts  it  off, 
as  such  an  act  would  inevitably  bring  disasters  upon 
his  family. 

If  one  sneezes  on  New  Year's  eve  while  preparing 
for  bed,  he  fears  misfortune  during  the  next  year, 
unless  he  goes  to  three  families  of  different  surnames, 
and  begs  from  each  a  little  cake,  shaped  like  a  tortoise, 
and  in  common  use  at  the  end  of  the  year  as  an 
emblem  of  long  life.  These  cakes  must  be  eaten 
by  the  sneezer  before  midnight. 

Sneezing  is  generally  a  sign  that  somebody  is  think- 


148  A  COltNEIl   OF  CATHAY. 

ing  of  one.  A  man  walking  along  the  road  knew 
that  a  stranger  was  walking  behind  him.  The  first 
man  sneezed,  and,  though  he  was  a  bachelor,  he  liked 
to  appear  to  be  the  head  of  a  household,  and  ex- 
claimed, "Ah,  my  wife  is  thinking  of  me!"  The 
second  man,  on  reaching  home,  asked  his  wife  why  she 
had  not  thought  of  him  at  all  that  day.  The  wife 
inquired  why  he  asked  that  unusual  question,  and, 
after  much  persuasion,  got  him  to  reveal  the  reason 
for  his  unjust  accusation  of  disregard.  When  he 
told  her  that  he  had  not  sneezed,  while  his  fellow- 
traveller  had  received  that  proof  of  a  wife's  remem- 
brance, the  wise  little  woman  told  her  jealous  spouse 
that  on  the  morrow  he  would  have  evidence  of  her 
consideration.  The  next  morning  he  went  to  carry 
two  jars  of  oil  to  a  neighbouring  village,  and,  as  the 
sun  was  hot,  his  wife  urged  his  wearing  a  wet  towel 
on  his  head,  under  his  hat,  to  protect  him  from  the 
heat.  The  towel  was  cold,  and  gave  the  poor  man 
a  chill.  Just  as  he  was  going  down  a  steep  slope 


SUNDRY   SUPERSTITIONS.  149 

he  sneezed  violently,  stumbled,  fell,  and  spilled  the 
oil.  When  he  reached  home  that  evening,  he  said 
to  his  wife,  "If  you  are  going  to  think  of  me 
when  I  am  absent,  I  wish  you  would  do  it  when 
I  am  on  level  ground,  and  not  when  I  am  going 
down  hill ! " 

Twenty  miles  north  from  Swatow,  rising  from  a 
plain  on  which  are  three  hundred  villages,  is  Lily 
Mountain,  on  the  top  of  which  is  the  shrine  of  a 
god  called  "  The  Common  Ancestor."  Many  persons 
go,  after  a  three-days  fast,  and  pass  the  ninth  night 
of  the  ninth  month  beside  this  shrine,  sleeping  in 
the  open  air  and  on  the  ground,  with  the  expectation 
of  having  a  dream  which  will  give  a  clue  to  the 
future. 

A  scholar  thus  slept,  and  had  a  vision  of  a  man 
bringing  him  a  pair  of  boots.  Since  boots  are  worn 
by  none  but  graduates  and  officials,  he  inferred  that 
he  should  soon  get  his  literary  degree.  Years  went 
by  without  his  attaining  the  coveted  honour,  and 


150  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

then  he  was  attacked  by  a  disease  in  his  feet  and 
lower  legs,  and  they  were  painted  with  tar  as  a 
remedy.  While  he  sat  looking  at  his  useless  mem- 
bers, he  suddenly  perceived  an  interpretation  of  his 
dream,  and  exclaimed,  "  Ah !  Here  I  am  at  last  in 
those  long-expected  boots." 

A  woman  dreamed  that  her  fortune  would  be  told 
by  the  first  person  she  should  meet.  This  person 
proved  to  be  a  seller  of  edible  snails,  that  are  some- 
times made  gritty  by  the  young  that  they  carry 
within  their  shells.  The  vender  of  snails  recom- 
mended his  merchandise,  saying  that  the  snails  were 
without  young ;  and  this  saying  the  woman  took  as 
an  indication  that  her  hope  of  offspring  of  her  own 
was  not  to  be  gratified. 

A  workingmar>  dreamed  that  some  one  said  to 
him,  "Dead  sugar-cane  revives  when  watered."  For 
a  long  time  he  could  see  neither  truth  in  the  state- 
ment, nor  application  of  the  untruth  to  his  affairs. 
But  once,  under  severe  suffering,  he  fainted  away, 


SUNDRY   SUPERSTITIONS.  151 

and  lay  in  a  swoon  until  water  was  dashed  upon  him ; 
and  then,  when  he  came  to  himself,  he  decided  that 
the  oracular  utterance  had  been  verified. 

Thus  superstition  is  by  superstition  established. 


A   QUEER*  AUTUMN   ENTERTAINMENT. 

IN  the  eighth  month  of  the  year,  early  in  autumn, 
when  the  full  moon  is  worshipped;  when  the  gods 
of  grain  are  rewarded  with  gifts ;  when  friends  ex- 
change many  souvenirs ;  when  the  upper  and  nether 
worlds  are  thought  to  touch  boundaries  —  then  the 
Chinese  women  meet  privately  and  fall  into  trances. 
Nearly  all  women  are  interested  in  these  secret 
sessions,  but  many  are  prevented  from  being  present 
by  necessary  occupations  elsewhere,  or  by  fear  of 
rebuke  from  the  men  of  their  households.  These 
conclaves  are  entered  by  women  only,  and  are  re- 
garded by  men  with  great  disfavour.  The  women 
assemble  in  an  apartment  where  they  may  be  for  a 
few  hours  secure  from  interruption.  From  three  to 

a  dozen  or  more  gather  around  a  table  in  the  centre 

152 


A  QUEER  AUTUMN  ENTERTAINMENT.      153 

of  the  room.  Incense-sticks,  spirit-money,  and  bamboo- 
roots,  bought  by  a  previous  contribution  of  farthings, 
are  distributed  among  all  present.  A  fetich  of  some 
sort,  a  decayed  splint  hat,  an  old  broom,  a  chop-stick, 
or  possibly  a  more  uncleanly  object,  taken  from  a 
rubbish  heap,  is  brought  in,  and  spirit-money  is 
burned  before  it  with  obeisances.  Then  those  who 
desire  to  fall  into  trance  sit  down  at  the  table,  throw 
a  black  cloth  over  the  head,  hold  a  sheet  of  spirit- 
money  and  a  lighted  incense-stick  between  the  palms 
before  the  face,  shut  the  eyes,  and  remain  motionless 
and  silent.  Of  the  other  women,  some  light  incense- 
sticks,  and  whirl  them  around  the  heads  of  the 
sitters  ;  some  rap  constantly,  gently  and  rapidly,  with 
the  bamboo-roots,  on  the  edge  of  the  table ;  some 
chant  invocations,  petitioning  the  gods  to  admit  these 
their  children  to  their  abode.  Many  and  diverse  in- 
cantations are  iterated.  One,  given  to  me  by  a 
woman  who  appeared  to  be  an  expert,  may  be  trans- 
lated as  follows :  — 


154  A   CORNER,   OF    CATHAY. 

Sister  spirit,  ghost  of  nun, 
Body  take  by  sharing  one ; 
Two  or  three  await  thee  here ; 
Choose  in  which  thou  wilt  appear. 

Spirit,  spirit,  come  and  reach 
Hand  to  lead  us ;   vouchsafe  speech ; 
Be  incarnate  in  us  here ; 
Choose  in  whom  thou  wilt  appear. 

Two  or  three  of  the  women,  perhaps,  fall  into 
trance.  Their  doing  so  is  indicated  by  their  trem- 
bling violently,  dropping  the  incense-sticks  they  were 
holding,  beginning  to  beat  the  table  with  the  palms 
of  their  hands,  and  to  discourse  incoherently.  They 
speak  of  meeting  their  own  lost  friends,  or  those  of 
other  women  who  are  present.  They  weep  bitterly 
while  they  appear  to  converse  with  the  dead.  They 
describe  streets,  shops,  and  houses,  and  say  that 
certain  persons  are  engaged  in  agriculture  or  trade. 
Sometimes  they,  by  request,  make  inquiry  concerning 
the  whereabouts  of  a  dead  person,  and  then  give  the 
information  that  he  has  been  born  into  the  human 


A   QUEER   AUTUMN   ENTERTAINMENT.  155 

family  for  the  second  time.  Sometimes  they  report 
that  a  dead  neighbour  is  shut  up  in  Hades,  with 
nothing  to  eat  but  the  salted  flesh  of  the  infant 
daughters  she  destroyed  when  she  was  alive. 

Many  women  go  to  these  meetings  merely  as  ob- 
servers ;  many  more  go  in  order  to  avail  themselves 
of  what  they  believe  to  be  an  opportunity  to  hear 
from  dead  relatives ;  a  few  go  with  the  hope  that 
they  may  themselves  fall  into  trance,  and  see  the 
spirit  of  some  recently  deceased  friend.  It  is  said 
that  those  who  wish  to  enter  Elysium  and  see  the 
dwellings  of  the  gods  and  genii,  must  make  the 
attempt  in  the  forenoon,  while  those  who  wish  to 
visit  lower  spheres  get  admittance  only  in  the  after- 
noon. 

As  no  pecuniary  benefit  accrues,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, to  the  actors  in  these  scenes,  there  is  less 
reason  for  suspecting  conscious  deception  than  in  the 
case  of  the  public  interpreters  for  the  gods. 

No  foreign   lady  can   get  access   to   these  sittings, 


A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

and  no  native  Christian  woman  is  admitted  to  them. 
It  is  said  that  no  one  falls  into  the  trance-state,  if 
a  monotheist  be  within  sight  or  hearing.  My  knowl- 
edge is  gained  wholly  from  a  score  of  Chinese 
women,  my  pupils,  who  in  former  years  attended 
these  sittings,  and  who  described  to  me  the  scenes 
of  the  eighth  month. 

Throughout  the  whole  there  is  indication  that  the 
minds  of  the  women  are,  during  these  trances,  moving 
in  customary  grooves.  They  evidently  see  what  they 
expect  to  see.  The  gardens  of  Elysium  are  laid  out 
in  Chinese  style ;  the  architecture  of  the  buildings 
is  Chinese  ;  the  punishments  are  those  made  familiar 
to  the  imagination  by  Buddhism  and  Tauism ;  the 
costumes,  the  implements,  and  the  paraphernalia  are 
such  as  are  common  in  Swatow.  These  seekers  after 
truth  in  the  land  of  the  shades  bring  back  no  ideas 
save  those  which  they  took  with  them  when  starting 
on  their  quest ;  and  this  leads  one  to  doubt,  in  spite 
of  their  dishevelled  hair,  pallor,  and  exhaustion, 


THE    WOMEN'S    APARTMENT 


A   QUEER   AUTUMN   ENTERTAINMENT.  157 

whether   they  have,  after  all,  really  been  away  from 
home. 

At  nightfall  the  supposed  traveller  is  lured  back 
by  incantations,  and  then  she  slips  slyly  back  into 
her  accustomed  duties,  with  no  chance,  for  another 
whole  year  perhaps,  to  take  a  jaunt  either  with  body 
or  soul. 


THE  CHINESE  THEORY  OF  EVOLUTION. 

I  ONCE  had  a  Chinese  teacher,  Mr.  Khu,  and  as 
I  was  his  first  foreign  acquaintance,  as  he  had  never 
tampered  with  books  of  Western  origin,  and  as  he 
was  said  to  have  made  a  special  study  of  the  occult 
sciences  and  to  be  devoutly  religious,  I  considered 
him  a  treasure-trove.  That  which  I  here  set  down 
as  the  Chinese  theory  of  evolution  has  been  trans- 
lated largely  from  Mr.  Khu's  expositions  of  cos- 
mogony. It  agrees  with  what  I  have  gathered, 
through  conversations  in  the  vernacular,  from  other 
native  scholars. 

Neither  Laou-Tze,  Confucius,  nor  Buddha,  the 
founders  of  the  three  great  religions  whose  tenets  har- 
moniously dwell  together  in  the  Chinese  mind,  has 
set  forth  an  account  of  the  making  of  the  universe. 

158 


THE   CHINESE   THEORY   OF   EVOLUTION.  159 

But  the  human  intellect  seems  to  trend  inevitably 
toward  attempts  to  explain  the  existence  of  things 
seen,  and  so  there  is  a  Chinese  theory  of  evolution, 
whose  exact  origin  it  is  difficult  to  trace  through 
the  four  thousand  years  and  the  myriad  volumes 
that  hold  the  written  history  of  the  empire. 

In  the  beginning  all  matter  was  transparent,  diffused, 
and  without  differentiation.  In  it  dwelt  the  dual 
powers  —  both  subtle,  ethereal,  and  eternal ;  but  the 
one  was  virile,  warm,  radiant,  and  active ;  the  other, 
feminine,  cold,  sombre,  and  quiescent. 
These  dual  powers  are  symbolized  by 
two  similar,  conjoined  figures,  whose 
outlines  may  be  made  by  drawing 
upon  the  diameter  of  a  circle  two 
oppositely  directed  semicircles,  whose  centres  are  those 
of  the  two  radii.  The  reciprocal  action  of  the  dual 
powers,  continuing  through  ages,  produced  all  that  is. 
Puan  Ko,  sometimes  represented  as  a  giant  holding 
up  the  sun  and  moon  and  shaping  the  mountains,  is 


160  A  CORNEE,   OF  CATHAY. 

only  the  personification  of  the  forces  that  wrought 
in  chaos. 

A  zenith,  a  nadir,  and  all  the  points  of  the  com- 
pass were  gradually  evolved.  There  came  to  be  a 
distinction  between  the  bright  heavens,  with  the  seven 
moving  luminaries,  and  the  dark  earth,  with  its  seas. 
The  male  principle  predominated  above,  the  female 
principle  predominated  below,  as  Father  Heaven  and 
Mother  Earth,  each  having  an  all-pervading  spirit, 
but  with  unlike  influence.  The  body  comes  from  and 
depends  upon  the  earth;  the  soul  comes  from  and 
returns  to  the  heavens. 

The  rocks  are  the  bones  of  the  divine  body,  the 
soil  is  the  flesh,  the  metals  are  the  nerves  and  veins ; 
the  tide,  wind,  rain,  clouds,  ( frost,  and  dew  are  all 
caused  by  its  respirations,  pulsations,  and  exhalations. 
Originally  the  mountains  rose  to  the  firmament,  and 
the,  seas  covered  the  mountains  to  their  tops.  At 
that  time  there  was,  in  the  divine  body,  no  life  besides 
the  divine  life.  Then  the  waters  subsided;  small 


THE  CHINESE  THEORY   OF  EVOLUTION.  161 

herbs  grew,  and  in  the  lapse  of  cycles  developed  into 
shrubs  and  trees.  As  the  body  of  man,  unwashed 
for  years,  breeds  vermin,  so  the  mountains,  unlaved 
by  the  seas,  bred  worms  and  insects,  greater  creatures 
developing  out  of  lesser.  Beetles  in  the  course  of 
ages  became  tortoises,  earthworms  became  serpents, 
high-flying  insects  became  birds,  some  of  the  turtle- 
doves became  pheasants,  egrets  became  cranes,  and 
wild  cats  became  tigers.  The  praying  mantis  was  by 
degrees  transformed  into  an  ape,  and  some  of  the 
apes  became  hairless.  A  hairless  ape  made  a  fire  by 
striking  crystal  upon  a  rock,  and,  with  the  spark 
struck  out,  igniting  the  dry  grass.  With  the  fire 
they  cooked  food,  and  by  eating  warm  victuals  they 
grew  large,  strong,  and  knowing,  and  were  changed 
into  men.  There  is  a  story  that  the  ape  who  first 
taught  cooking  had  a  peculiar  origin.  He  was  im- 
prisoned, from  the  beginning,  in  a  rock  on  the  sea- 
shore. The  waves  beat  on  the  rock  century  after 
century,  and  at  last  wore  away  all  except  the  ape 


162  A   COIINER    OF   CATHAY. 

that  had  been  its  centre.  Then  the  sun  warmed  him, 
and  the  winds  breathed  upon  him,  till  he  became 
alive,  and  with  a  divine  impulsion  went  and  taught 
his  kind  to  cook  their  food. 

Khu  says :  "  In  the  early  days  of  man  there  were 
peace  and  plenty,  because  no  one  disturbed  or  mal- 
treated the  body  of  God.  Those  who  saw  a  stone 
removed  from  its  natural  site,  wept,  and  carried  it 
back  and  put  it  in  the  place  from  which  it  came. 
Children  were  taught  that  if  they  found  a  piece  of 
metal,  they  must  not  touch  it.  No  silver,  nor  gold, 
nor  jade,  was  to  be  seen  in  any  dwelling.  To  the 
wise,  dreams  were  given,  in  which  the  universal 
parent  spoke,  saying :  '  Child,  the  gold,  the  jade,  the 
metals,  and  the  gems  are  all  parts  of  my  body.  Touch 
them  not,  nor  meddle  with  them  to  my  hurt  and 
yours.  To  take  stones  from  the  earth  is  to  dislocate 
the  bones  of  one's  parent ;  when  the  parent  suffers, 
the  dependent  child  is  harmed.'  In  those  days  the 
soil  was  red  and  rich;  it  was  heavy  as  iron,  and  so 


THE   CHINESE   THEORY   OF    EVOLUTION.  163 

ductile  that  it  could  be  drawn  into  filaments.  There 
was  no  need  of  fertilizing  the  fields.  Whatever  was 
planted  grew  quickly,  and  the  kernels  of  grain  were 
as  large  as  chestnuts,  and  the  potato-tubers  were  as 
large  as  squashes  now  are.  The  products  of  the 
earth  were  so  nutritious  that  one  meal  a  day  was 
sufficient,  and  so  luscious  were  they  that  condiments 
were  needless.  It  is  the  disrespect  shown  to  the 
divine  body  that  has  made  the  life  of  man  so  hard. 
One  should  be  content  with  what  may  be  had  without 
deeply  disturbing  the  soil.  The  displeasure  of  Heaven 
is  often  manifestly  visited  upon  the  agriculturists  who 
give  the  land  no  rest,  and  the  lightning  frequently 
strikes  those  who  are  at  work  in  the  fields.  Those 
who  walk  on  mountains  soon  tire,  because  they  tread 
upon  the  bones,  while  those  who  keep  to  the  artificial 
highways  are  not  so  soon  fatigued." 

This  pantheistic  theory  being  in  its  loftiest  concep- 
tions too  abstract  for  the  masses,  it  is  expressed  by 
them  in  the  assertion  that  "there  is  a  god  to  every 


164  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

eight  feet  of  space."  Every  tree,  grotto,  and  hummock 
has  its  tutelary  deity.  Consequently,  no  man  begins 
to  dig  a  cistern,  to  remove  earth  from  a  hill,  to  cut  a 
stone,  or  to  till  a  garden,  without  offering  propitiatory 
gifts  to  the  local  divinity.  If  fever,  headache,  or 
dyspepsia  follow  the  effort,  the  displeasure  of  the  god 
is  believed  to  be  its  cause,  and  the  work  is  apt  to  be 
abandoned. 

It  is  at  once  apparent  that  this  pantheistic  theory 
of  evolution  offers  serious  hindrance  to  the  utilization 
of  the  metals  contained  in  the  mountains,  to  the  open- 
ing of  mines,  the  building  of  railroads,  and  the  erection 
of  structures  requiring  deep  foundations.  It  has  pre- 
vented the  Chinese  from  availing  themselves  of  the 
vast  mineral  resources  of  their  country,  from  levelling 
thoroughfares  where  they  are  pressingly  required  for 
traffic,  and  from  full  use  of  the  products  of  the  earth 
in  promoting  the  well-being  of  man.  It  is  the  chief 
reason  why  the  emigration  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  in  search  of  work  has  now  become  necessary. 


THE   CHINESE   THEORY    OF   EVOLUTION.  165 

If  the  Chinese  were  unhampered  by  fear  of  the 
invisible  ones  who  are  considered  by  all  to  be  the 
real  proprietors  of  the  land,  they  would  have  an 
abundance  of  lucrative  work  within  their  own  borders, 
and  they  need  not  then  afflict  other  countries  by  their 
immigration.  The  losses  that  accrue  to  them  through 
this  false  theory  are  both  positive  and  negative.  It 
occasions  an  enormous  outlay  upon  profitless  offerings 
that  must  be  bought  with  money  earned  by  hard 
labour ;  and  it  prevents  their  use  of  the  wealth  stored 
in  their  lands.  Affecting  daily  the  welfare  of  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  persons,  it  well  illustrates  the 
practical  evil  of  false  doctrine,  and,  by  contrast,  shows 
the  great  economic  value  of  truth. 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS. 

This  review  of  the  life  of  the  great  sage  of  China  is  condensed 
from  the  Prolegomena  to  "  The  Chinese  Classics,"  by  Dr.  Legg, 
and  all  the  quotations  of  his  words  are  the  translations  of  Dr. 
Legg  in  the  same  vast  and  valuable  work.  Other  sources  of  in- 
formation have  been  Dr.  Williamson's  "  Travels  in  North  China," 
Mr.  Waiter's  "  Confucian  Temple,"  and  various  papers  published 
by  missionaries  in  the  Shantung  Province,  combined  with  personal 
observations  among  Confucianists. 

CONFUCIUS,  whose  latinized  name  is  made  up  from 
his  family  name  Khong,  with  his  title  hu  chu,  the 
Master,  was  born  551  B.C.,  in  what  is  now  the  western 
part  of  the  Shantung  Province,  in  China.  At  the 
time  of  his  birth  Cyrus  had  reigned  for  eight  years 
over  the  Medes  and  Persians.  Babylon  had  not  yet 
fallen,  and-  the  son  of  Nebuchadnezzar  walked  in  its 
hanging  gardens.  The  prophet  Daniel  had  seen  his 

fellow-captives  escape  unscathed  from  the  fiery  furnace, 

166 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  167 

but  had  himself  yet  to  be  cast  into  the  den  of  lions. 
Twelve  monarchs  more  were  to  reign  in  Macedon 
before  Alexander  the  Great  should  consolidate  the 
states  of  Greece.  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Pericles  were 
not  yet  born,  and  the  Parthenon  at  Athens  and  the 
Temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus  were  yet  unbuilt. 
Servius  Tullius  ruled  in  Rome,  whose  greatness  was 
yet  to  be  attained,  and  just  five  centuries  were  to 
pass  before  Julius  Caesar  should  publish  his  commen- 
taries on  the  invasion  of  Britain  and  the  conquest 
of  Gaul.  Eight  years  later,  Sakya  Muni,  the  Buddha, 
would  die  in  India ;  but  of  these  two  men,  who 
would  together  dominate  the  minds  of  a  third  of  the 
human  race  through  thousands  of  years,  the  younger 
would  never  hear  of  the  elder;  and  centuries  would 
roll  away  before  the  doctrines  of  the  one  would  invade 
the  country  and  capture  the  imagination  of  hosts  of 
followers  of  the  other.  Laou-Tze,  the  founder  of 
Tauism,  the  Chinese  Mysticism,  was  in  his  prime. 
The  age  was  one  singularly  productive  of  religions. 


168  A    CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

Had  travelling  facilities  been  what  they  now  are,  the 
personal  disciples  of  Confucius,  Laou-Tze,  Buddha, 
and  Pythagoras  might  have  met  to  compare  views 
on  life,  duty,  arid  death. 

Confucius  had  behind  him  a  history  of  his  nation 
for  two  thousand  years,  with  four  preceding  dynas- 
ties and  several  tens  of  sovereigns,  in  which  he 
might  study  the  lives  of  rulers  already  ancient,  and 
hold  them  up  as  patterns  or  as  warnings  to  the 
princes  of  his  time.  During  all  the  years  of  the 
nation  before  Confucius  the  government  had  been 
feudal,  and  it  was  not  until  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  after  his  death  that  feudality  ended,  and  the 
empire  was  consolidated  under  a  single  sovereign. 
In  the  time  of  Confucius  there  were  thirteen  prin- 
cipalities and  many  lesser  dependencies,  governed 
by  adherents  to  the  reigning  family  of  the  empire. 
The  emperor  exercised  more  or  less  control  over  these 
many  chiefs,  who  warred  among  themselves  or  dis- 
puted the  degree  of  their  subjection  to  their  sovereign. 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  169 

For  at  least  seventeen  hundred  years  the  Chinese 
had  already  worn  finely  manufactured  garments  of 
silk  and  other  materials.  Their  present  system  of  ideo- 
graphic writing  had  been  in  use  from  prehistoric  times, 
the  preponderance  of  evidence  being  in  favour  of  the 
reign  of  Fu  Hi,  nearly  3000  years  B.C.  They  were 
accustomed  to  observe  the  stars,  having  been  the  first 
to  record  a  conjunction  of  four  planets  and  the  moon, 
that  of  Feb.  28,  2446  B.C.,  and  the  earliest  to  reg- 
ister an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  that  of  Oct.  13,  2127 
B.C.  It  is  reported  that  one  of  their  rulers,  2000» 
B.C.,  put  the  court  astronomers  to  death,  because 
they  failed  to  calculate  an  approaching  eclipse. 
They  cultivated  music,  and  many  arts,  and  must 
have  attained  a  considerable  degree  of  civilization 
long  before  Confucius  began  to  influence  them. 

The  ancestry  of  Confucius  has  been  traced  back 
to  1121  B.C.,  to  the  imperial  house  of  Yin,  and  all 
along  the  line  of  descent  were  many  distinguished 
men.  His  father,  named  Hieh,  was  a  soldier  of 


170  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

great  bravery  and  of  enormous  strength.  Eleven 
years  before  the  birth  of  Confucius,  when  serving 
at  the  siege  of  a  town,  Hieh,  with  other  assailants, 
entered  a  gate  which  had  been  left  open  to  entrap 
them.  No  sooner  were  they  inside,  than  the  port- 
cullis was  dropped,  enclosing  the  troops  in  the  hands 
'of  the  enemy.  Hieh  seized  the  heavy  structure,  and, 
by  main  strength,  raised  and  held  it  up,  till  every 
man  escaped.  At  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Confu- 
cius, Hieh  was  the  governor  of  Chow,  a  district 
lying  some  forty  miles  west  of  Kiu-fu,  which  was 
the  ancestral  home  of  the  Khong  family  in  the  king- 
dom of  Loo.  In  his  youth,  Hieh  had  married  a 
chief  wife  who  had  borne  him  nine  daughters,  and 
he  had  also  an  inferior  wife,  who  had  borne  him 
one  son,  a  cripple.  When  Hieh  was  over  seventy 
years  of  age,  and  a  widower,  sharing  doubtless  the 
views  of  other  men  of  his  race  concerning  the  de- 
sirability of  having  male  descendants,  he  sought  a 
wife  in  the  Yen  family,  in  which  there  were  three 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  171 

daughters.  Their  father  said  to  the  three  young  ladies  : 
"  Here  is  the  commandant  of  Chow.  His  father  and 
grandfather  were  only  scholars,  but  his  ancestors 
before  them  were  descendants  of  the  sage  emperors. 
He  is  a  man  ten  feet  high,  and  of  extraordinary 
prowess,  and  I  am  desirous  of  his  alliance.  Though 
he  is  old  and  austere,  you  need  have  no  misgivings 
about  him.  Which  of  you  three  will  be  his  wife?" 
The  two  elder  daughters  were  silent,  but  the  young- 
est, Ching-Tsae,  said:  "  Why  do  you  ask  us,  father? 
It  is  for  you  to  determine."  "Very  well,"  said  her 
father  in  reply ;  "  you  will  do."  Ching-Tsae  accord- 
ingly became  the  wife  of  Hieh,  and  afterward  the 
mother  of  Confucius.  She  is  said  to  have  cherished 
in  him  his  strong  moral  sense. 

When  he  was  three  years  old,  his  father  died. 
In  his  childhood  he  was  poor,  but  he  bent  himself 
to  learning.  When,  long  afterward,  his  acquaintances 
expressed  surprise  at  the  variety  of  his  knowledge, 
he  explained  it  by  saying,  "  When  I  was  young,  my 


172  A  CORKER   OF   CATHAY. 

condition  was  low,  and  therefore  I  acquired  ability 
in  many  things."  Possibly  the  sage  Mencius,  great- 
est among  the  followers  of  Confucius,  had  the  ex- 
perience of  his  master  in  mind  when  he  wrote : 
"When  Heaven  is  about  to  confer  a  great  office  on 
any  man,  it  first  exercises  his  mind  with  suffering 
and  his  sinews  and  bones  with  toil.  It  exposes  his 
body  to  hunger,  and  subjects  him  to  extreme  pov- 
erty. It  confounds  his  undertakings.  By  all  these 
methods  it  stimulates  his  mind,  hardens  his  nature 
and  supplies  his  incompetencies.  From  these  things 
we  see  how  life  springs  from  sorrow  and  calamity, 
and  death  from  ease  and  pleasure ! " 

When  Confucius  was  nineteen,  he  married,  and  in 
the  following  year  his  son  Li  was  born.  No  mention 
is  made  of  his  having  other  children  except  one 
daughter.  As  the  duke  of  Chow  sent  him  a  couple 
of  carp  on  the  birth  of  his  son,  he  must,  even  at 
that  early  period  in  his  life,  have  commanded  the 
respect  of  the  great.  When  about  twenty  years  old, 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  173 

he  became  the  keeper  of  the  public  stores  of  grain, 
and  a  year  later  he  was  put  in  charge  also  of  the 
public  lands.  It  seems  that  he  scrupulously  discharged 
his  duties,  saying  of  his  care  of  the  stores,  "My  cal- 
culations must  all  be  right " ;  and  of  his  charge  of 
the  fields,  "The  oxen  and  sheep  must  be  fat  and 
strong  and  superior." 

When  in  his  twenty-second  year,  he  commenced  his 
career  as  a  public  teacher,  and  his  house  became  a 
resort  for  young  men  who  wished  to  learn  the  doc- 
trines of  antiquity.  However  small  the  fee  his  pupils 
could  afford,  he  never  rejected  one  on  account  of 
poverty;  and,  late  in  life,  was  able  to  say,  "From 
the  man  bringing  his  bundle  of  dry  flesh  for  my 
teaching,  upward,  I  have  never  refused  instruction 
to  any  one."  He  required,  however,  in  his  pupils, 
an  ardent  desire  for  improvement,  and  some  degree 
of  capacity.  He  said:  "I  do  not  open  up  the  truth  to 
any  who  are  not  eager  to  get  knowledge,  nor  help 
out  any  one  who  is  not  himself  anxious  to  explain. 


174  A   COKNER   OF   CATHAY. 

When  I  have  presented  one  corner  of  a  subject  to 
any  one,  and  he  cannot,  from  it,  learn  the  other 
three,  I  do  not  repeat  my  lesson." 

When  he  was  twenty-three  years  old,  his  mother 
died ;  and  he  resolved  that  her  body  should  lie  in  the 
same  grave  with  that  of  his  father,  and  that  their 
common  resting-place  should  be  in  Loo,  the  home  of 
the  Khong  family.  His  father  had  been  dead  twenty 
years,  but  his  coffin  was  carried  with  that  of  his  wife, 
and  interred  in  the  native  country  of  his  ancestors. 
Confucius  mourned  for  his  mother  during  the  fixed 
period  of  twenty-seven  months,  and  when,  five  days 
after  laying  aside  mourning  garments,  he  took  his 
lute,  he  could  not  accompany  the  instrument  with 
his  voice,  and  another  five  days  passed  before  he  was 
heard  to  sing. 

After  the  obsequies  of  his  mother,  Confucius  re- 
mained in  Loo,  probably  pursuing  his  researches  in 
history  and  literature,  and  instructing  the  inquirers 
who  resorted  to  him.  When  he  was  thirty-four  years 


CONFUCIUS   AND    HIS   TEACHINGS.  175 

old,  one  of  the  principal  ministers  of  Loo,  in  dying, 
directed  that  two  scions  of  his  house  should  go  and 
study  under  the  direction  of  Confucius.  Their  wealth 
and  standing  gave  their  teacher  a  better  position  than 
he  had  before  obtained,  and  when  he  afterward  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  visit  the  dukedom  of  Chow,  the 
duke  of  his  country,  on  the  representation  of  his 
pupils,  put  a  carriage  and  horses  at  his  disposal  for 
the  journey.  While  at  Chow,  he  sought  and  con- 
versed with  Laou-Tze,  the  founder  of  the  Tauist  or 
Mystic  sect;  but  no  reliable  record  of  the  conference 
of  these  two  great  sages  has  been  preserved.  While 
at  Chow,  he  also  visited  the  grounds  set  apart  for  the 
sacrifices  to  Heaven  and  Earth,  inspected  the  Hall 
of  Light,  in  which  princes  of  the  empire  had  audience 
with  their  sovereign,  and  examined  the  ancestral  tem- 
ples and  the  court.  But  within  a  year  he  returned 
to  Loo,  and  continued  his  work  of  teaching.  His 
fame  increased,  and  disciples  came  to  him  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  empire  to  the  number  of  three  thou- 


176  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

sand.  Thereafter  he  moved  in  the  midst  of  a  company 
of  devoted  and  admiring  followers,  who  probably  had 
their  individual  vocations,  and  came  about  him  at 
times  when  they  specially  desired  his  counsel.  The 
year  after  his  return  from  Chow,  great  political  dis- 
order prevailed,  and  civil  strife  rent  the  state.  In 
order  to  avoid  the  confusion,  he  withdrew  to  Tse,  on 
the  north  of  Loo.  There  the  duke  conferred  with 
him  upon  governmental  measures,  and  proposed  to 
appoint  him  as  governor  of  the  town  of  Lin-kew, 
from  the  revenues  of  which  he  might  derive  a  sup- 
port; but  Confucius  refused  the  gift,  and  said  to  his 
disciples:  "A  superior  man  will  only  receive  reward 
for  services  he  has  done.  I  have  given  advice  to  the 
duke,  but  he  has  not  yet  obeyed  it,  and  now  he  would 
endow  me  with  this  place !  Very  far  is  he  from  un- 
derstanding me ! "  The  duke  soon  tired  of  having 
such  a  monitor  as  Confucius  near  him,  and  finally 
said,  "I  am  old;  I  cannot  use  his  doctrines."  This 
was  reported  to  Confucius,  who  did  not  consider  it 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS  TEACHINGS.  177 

consistent  with  his  self-respect  to  remain  longer  in 
Tse,  and  he  returned  to  Loo,  where  he  remained  for 
fifteen  years  without  official  employment.  It  was  a 
time  of  political  disturbance,  and  he  devoted  the 
years  to  researches  in  poetry,  history,  rites,  and  music. 
When  in  his  fiftieth  year,  he  was  made  chief  magis- 
trate of  the  town  of  Chung-too,  in  his  native  Loo. 
There  he  soon  produced  a  marvellous  reformation  in 
the  manners  of  the  people.  He  established  rules  for 
the  living,  assigning  different  food  to  the  old  and 
to  the  young,  and  made  regulations  for  the  obsequies 
of  the  dead,  directing  that  inner  coffins  should  be 
four  inches  thick,  and  outer  ones  five,  while  graves 
were  made  upon  high  grounds,  no  mounds  being 
raised  over  them,  and  no  trees  planted  around  them. 
Different  burdens  were  assigned  to  the  strong  and  to 
the  weak,  and  different  portions  of  the  street  to  males 
and  to  females.  A  thing  dropped  on  the  road  by  one 
person  was  not  picked  up  by  another.  There  were 
no  fraudulent  marks  on  vessels  of  measurement.  Sucli 


178  A    COliNER    OF   CATHAY. 

was  the  perfection  of  his  government,  that  the  princes 
wished  to  imitate  his  style  of  administration.  The 
duke  of  Loo  then  appointed  him  Assistant-Superin- 
tendent of  Works,  and  while  in  this  office,  he  sur- 
veyed the  lands  of  the  state,  and  made  many  im- 
provements in  agriculture.  He  was  then  made  judge 
of  the  Criminal  Court,  and  his  appointment  alone 
was  enough  to  put  an  end  to  crime.  When  any  mat- 
ter came  before  him  for  adjudication,  he  took  the 
views  of  many  individuals  upon  it,  and  thus  enlisted 
general  sympathy,  and  carried  public  opinion  with 
him  in  his  administration  of  justice. 

The  fame  of  the  reformation  in  Loo  spread  abroad, 
and  the  neighbouring  princes  began  to  fear  that  a 
country  so  well  governed  would  become  supreme 
among  the  states.  The  duke  of  Tse,  being  nearest, 
was  most  alarmed,  and  in  conference  with  his  minis- 
ters hit  upon  a  scheme  for  separating  the  duke  of 
Loo  from  his  counsellor.  Eighty  beautiful  girls, 
accomplished  in  music  and  dancing,  with  a  hundred 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  179 

and  twenty-five  fine  horses,  were  selected  and  sent 
as  a  present  to  the  duke  of  Loo.  They  were  lodged 
outside  the  capital,  and  the  duke  was  inveigled  into 
going  to  look  at  them.  He  was  captivated,  the  gifts 
Avere  received,  and  the  sage  was  neglected.  Then 
Confucius  regretfully  took  his  departure  from  Loo, 
going  slowly,  that  he  might  be  easily  overtaken  by 
any  messenger  sent  to  recall  him.  But  the  duke  con- 
tinued in  his  abandonment;  and  the  sage,  now  in  the 
fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  went  forth  to  thirteen  years 
of  wandering,  accompanied  by  several  of  his  disciples. 
He  first  went  westward  to  the  state  of  Wei.  His 
fame  had  gone  before  him,  and  on  arriving  at  the 
capital,  the  reigning  duke  assigned  him  a  revenue 
of  sixty  thousand  measures  of  grain.  The  duke, 
however,  was  dissipated,  and  was  married  to  a  lady 
noted  for  wicked  intrigues.  The  duchess  insisted 
upon  an  interview  with  the  sage;  and,  although  it 
was  unwillingly  granted,  his  disciples  were  greatly 
dissatisfied  at  his  having  been  in  company  with  such 


180  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

a  woman.  One  day  the  duke  drove  out  through  the 
streets  of  the  capital  in  the  same  carriage  with  the 
duchess,  and  made  Confucius  follow  them  in  another. 
Confucius  was  ashamed,  and  said,  "  I  have  not  seen 
any  one  who  loves  virtue  as  he  loves  beauty."  Wei 
was  no  place  for  him,  and  he  left  it,  taking  his  way 
southward  to  Chin.  There  he  spent  a  year  or  more, 
lodged  with  the  warden  of  the  city  wall.  Chin  was 
much  disturbed  by  attacks  from  Woo,  a  large  state 
on  the  east,  and  Confucius  determined  to  retrace 
his  steps  to  Wei.  He  was  again  received  with  dis- 
tinction, but  the  duke  paid  no  more  attention  than 
before  to  his  precepts.  It  was  then  that  he  uttered 
his  complaint,  saying  that  if  any  of  the  princes  would 
employ  him,  he  could  perfect  the  government  in  three 
years. 

His  attention  having  been  directed  to  the  state  of 
Tsin,  he  travelled  as  far  as  the  Yellow  River,  that 
he  might  see  one  of  the  principal  ministers  of  that 
country,  but  he  soon  returned  again  to  Wei.  After 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS  TEACHINGS.  181 

further  ineffectual  attempts  to  influence  the  duke  to 
right  living,  he  became  disgusted  at  being  questioned 
by  him  about  military  tactics,  and  went  back  to  Chin. 
In  the  next  year  the  duke  of  Loo  died,  and  on 
his  death-bed  charged  his  successor  to  recall  the  sage, 
but  several  years  passed  before  the  injunction  was 
obeyed.  In  the  meanwhile  Confucius  went  to  three 
other  of  the  states,  and  spent  five  years  more  in  Wei. 
His  return  to  Loo,  his  native  state,  was  brought  about 
by  one  of  his  disciples,  whose  glowing  eulogy  of  his 
master  caused  his  chief  to  determine  to  bring  Con- 
fucius back.  Three  officers  were  sent  with  appropri- 
ate presents  to  invite  the  wanderer  home,  and  he 
returned  with  them  to  Loo.  He  was  now  in  his 
sixty-ninth  year.  He  had  met  with  sorrow  and  dis- 
appointment. He  had  attained  to  that  state,  he  tells 
us,  wherein  he  "  could  follow  what  his  heart  desired 
without  transgressing  what  was  right " ;  but  other 
people  were  no  more  inclined  than  they  had  been 
to  abide  by  his  counsels.  Though  the  rulers  con- 


182  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

ferred  with  him,  his  words  had  little  influence  in 
affairs  of  state,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  literary 
labour.  He  wrote  the  prefaces  to  his  compilation  of 
"  Historical  Documents,"  made  a  careful  digest  of  the 
rites  and  ceremonies  determined  by  the  ancient  kings 
and  scholars,  collected  and  arranged  the  ancient 
poetry,  and  undertook  the  reform  of  music.  He 
devoted  much  time  to  the  study  of  the  "  Book  of 
Changes,"  a  work  on  divination,  and  made  an  appen- 
dix to  it.  Of  this  classic  he  said,  "  If  some  years 
were  added  to  my  life,  I  would  give  fifty  to  the 
study  of  the  '  Book  of  Changes,'  and  then  I  might 
come  to  be  without  great  faults."  He  completed 
the  "  Annals  "  when  in  his  seventy-first  year. 

During  his  latest  years  he  was  afflicted  by  the 
deaths  of  three  of  his  favourite  disciples.  His  son  Li 
died  three  years  before  him,  leaving  one  son,  Khong 
Kieh.  Confucius  knew  that  his  end  was  approach- 
ing, and  disappointed  hopes  embittered  his  soul.  Of 
all  the  princes  ruling  in  the  empire,  he  had  not 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS  TEACHINGS.  183 

found  one  who  would  accept  his  teachings  as  a 
guide  in  government.  His  soul  longed  to  see  the 
great  ones  of  his  country  acting  upon  his  principles, 
but  his  efforts  to  serve  his  generation  through  his 
powerful  setting  forth  of  the  laws  of  propriety  had 
apparently  failed.  His  disciples  adhered  to  him,  but 
no  wife  nor  child  cheered  his  old  age.  When  he 
knew  that  his  time  to  die  had  come,  he  expressed 
no  hope,  uttered  no  prayer,  betrayed  no  fear.  To 
himself  he  softly  crooned:  — 

The  great  mountain  must  crumble, 

The  strong  beam  must  break, 

And  the  wise  man  wither  away  like  a  plant. 

After  seven  days  on  his  couch,  attended  by  his  dis- 
ciples, he,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  passed  beyond 
the  known. 

He  had  hardly  gone,  when  his  merit  began  to  be 
lauded  by  those  who  had,  during  his  life,  failed  to 
avail  themselves  of  his  wisdom.  The  duke  of  Loo, 
who  had  previously  shown  no  great  interest  in  his 


184  A   COKNEB   OF   CATHAY. 

lessons,  on  hearing  of  his  death,  exclaimed :  "  Heaven 
has  not  left  to  me  the  aged  man.  There  is  now 
none  to  assist  me  on  the  throne.  Woe  is  me ! "  He 
caused  a  temple  to  be  erected  to  the  memory  of  Con- 
fucius, and  ordered  that  sacrifices  should  be  offered 
to  him  at  the  four  seasons  of  the  year.  The  founder 
of  the  Han  dynasty,  on  passing  through  Loo,  194  B.C., 
visited  his  tomb  and  offered  an  ox  in  sacrifice  to 
him.  Many  other  emperors  have  since  made  pilgrim- 
ages to  the  spot. 

At  first  the  worship  of  Confucius  was  confined  to 
the  country  of  Loo,  but  in  57  A.D.  it  was  enacted 
that  sacrifices  should  be  offered  to  him  in  the  Impe- 
rial College,  and  in  the  colleges  of  the  principal  ter- 
ritorial divisions.  The  second  and  most  noted  emperor 
of  the  present  dynasty  set  the  example  of  laying  his 
forehead  thrice  in  the  dust  before  the  image  of  the 
sage.  At  present  there  are,  by  the  laws  of  China, 
Confucian  temples  in  every  city  and  market  town. 
The  image  of  the  sage  occupies  the  chief  place,  facing 


CONFUCIUS   AND  HIS  TEACHINGS.  185 

south,  and  the  images  of  many  of  his  disciples,  who 
are  canonized  as  saints,  are  ranged  along  the  lofty 
main  hall.  From  ten  to  a  hundred  of  his  immediate 
followers  and  relatives  are  represented  by  images  and 
tablets.  Twice  a  year,  on  a  fixed  day  in  spring  and 
autumn,  the  worship  of  Confucius  is  solemnly  per- 
formed in  all  these  temples,  by  the  chief  magistrates 
and  worthies,  attended  by  bands  of  musicians  and 
minuet-boys.  In  the  Imperial  College,  at  Peking,  the 
emperor  himself  attends  in  state  and  is  the  chief 
performer. 

Besides  these  semi-annual  sacrifices,  offerings  of 
flowers,  fruit,  and  vegetables  are  set  forth  on  the 
first  day  of  every  month ;  and  on  the  fifteenth  day, 
that  of  full  moon,  there  is  a  solemn  burning  of 
incense.  Every  school-boy,  in  his  school-room,  wor- 
ships twice  a  month  before  the  name  of  the  great 
sage,  written  on  red  paper  and  pasted  on  the  wall. 

The  most  magnificent  structure  in  the  empire  is 
the  Confucian  temple  at  Kiu-fu,  the  city  of  the  Khong 


186  A   CORNER    OP   CATHAY. 

clan.  A  part  of  it  stands  upon  the  place  where  Con- 
fucius once  lived.  In  its  grounds  are  cypress  trees 
said  to  have  been  planted  by  Confucius  himself.  It 
contains  a  statue  of  the  sage,  eighteen  feet  high,  and 
a  genealogical  tree  with  the  branches  turned  down- 
ward, showing  the  descent  of  the  Khongs  of  the  pres- 
ent time  from  the  grandson  of  Confucius.  In  the 
patriarchal  manner  of  life,  where  a  family  lives  per- 
petually on  the  same  land  and  keeps  its  records  with 
scrupulous  care,  there  appears  to  be  good  reason  for 
believing  such  a  register  correct,  though  it  cover 
twenty-four  centuries,  and  eighty  generations. 

Near  the  temple  is  the  mansion  which  was  the 
ancestral  home  of  Confucius,  and  in  which  some 
lineal  descendant  of  his  has  lived  since  his  day.  In 
the  year  1671  A.D.,  his  male  issue  numbered  eleven 
thousand,  chiefly  of  the  seventy-fourth  generation. 
At  present,  the  city  of  Kiu-fu  is  mainly  inhabited  by 
his  posterity,  four  families  out  of  every  five  bearing 
his  surname.  The  men  are  large-boned,  tall,  and 


CONFUCIUS    AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  187 

strong.  The  head  of  the  clan  bears  the  title  of  duke, 
which  title  passes  unchanged  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, except  when  some  emperor  by  royal  decree 
adds  new  honours  to  the  name  and  line  of  the  sage. 
The  duke  is  an  independent  nobleman  of  the  empire, 
next  to  the  reigning  family  in  rank,  and  he  has  an 
estate  of  166,650  acres.  He  holds  authority  over  the 
whole  district,  but  does  not  concern  himself  with 
petty  affairs.  The  governor  of  the  Shantung  prov- 
ince, which  is  as  large  and  as  populous  as  England, 
has  to  prostrate  himself  nine  times  when  he  enters 
the  ducal  presence. 

A  portion  of  the  wall  of  the  present  ducal  mansion 
is  that  of  the  ancient  dwelling  of  Confucius,  and  is 
that  in  which  was  found  the  celebrated  copy  of  one 
of  the  works  of  Confucius,  hidden  away  about  212  B.C., 
from  that  destroyer  of  books  and  authors,  the  emperor 
Tsin,  and  discovered  some  tens  of  years  later  when 
the  house  was  being  rebuilt.  A  portion  of  this  price- 
less relic,  with  valuable  jewels,  vases,  and  carvings, 
was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1887, 


188  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

The  tomb  of  Confucius  is  outside  the  north  gate 
of  Kiu-fu,  and  is  a  grassy  mound,  fifteen  feet  high, 
with  cypress  trees  growing  around  it,  and  with  many 
stone  archways,  pavilions,  and  gigantic  animals  in 
the  vicinity.  In  front  of  the  grave  is  a  tall  tablet, 
with  characters  meaning,  "  The  resting-place  of  the 
Great  Perfection."  There  is  also  a  small  stone  altar, 
such  as  is  commonly  placed  before  Chinese  graves. 
Through  all  the  convulsions  and  revolutions  that 
have  shaken  the  country,  the  mound  in  which  the 
body  of  the  illustrious  sage  was  laid  has  remained 
in  its  original  simplicity  and  integrity.  A  hut  is 
always  to  be  seen  on  the  spot  where  the  most 
faithful  disciple  of  Confucius  made  a  poor  shelter 
for  himself,  and  dwelt  in  sorrow  by  his  master's 
grave  for  six  years  after  his  burial.  Around  the 
grave  are  interred  tens  of  thousands  of  the  Khong 
family,  within  an  enclosure  fourteen  miles  in  cir- 
cumference. 

Probably  there  is   no   other  historical   character   of 


CONFUCIUS  AND  HIS  TEACHINGS.        189 

whom  more  is  known  than  of  this  ancient  sage.  He 
was  tall,  strong,  and  well  built,  with  a  full,  ruddy 
face  and  thick  beard.  We  know  where  and  how  he 
spent  every  year  of  his  long  life.  His  habits  are 
minutely  recorded.  He  was  fastidious  in  dress,  and 
careful  to  wear  what  was  appropriate  to  the  occasion. 
He  never  wore  anything  of  red,  or  purple,  or  plum 
colour.  His  under-clothing  was  of  silk,  and  he 
required  his  sleeping-garments  to  be  half  as  long 
again  as  his  body.  He  did  not  sit  on  a  mat  that 
was  not  straight.  When  in  bed,  he  did  not  speak. 
He  liked  his  rice  finely  cleaned,  and  his  minced 
meat  chopped  small.  He  did  not  eat  meat  that 
was  not  properly  cut,  nor  served  without  its  appro- 
priate sauce,  and  he  was  never  without  ginger  at 
his  meals.  He  ate  little,  and  when  eating  did  not 
converse.  He  was  punctilious  in  etiquette,  he  de- 
lighted in  ceremony,  and  he  was  elaborately  con- 
sistent. When  he  was  eating  by  the  side  of  a 
mourner,  he  never  ate  to  the  full,  and  he  did  not 


190  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

sing  on  the  same  day  in  which  he  had  been  weeping. 
When  he  saw  a  person  in  mourning,  or  any  one  in 
full  dress,  or  a  blind  person,  he  would,  on  their  ap- 
proach, rise  up,  even  though  they  were  younger  than 
he.  When  any  of  his  friends  died,  having  no  rela- 
tions that  could  be  depended  upon  for  the  necessary 
offices,  he  would  say,  "I  will  bury  him." 

In  his  domestic  life  he  was  austere,  and  it  is  a  dis- 
puted question  whether  he  divorced  his  wife.  One 
of  his  disciples,  hoping  to  learn  something  that  he 
had  taught  his  son,  inquired  of  the  latter,  "Have 
you  heard  any  lessons  from  your  father,  different 
from  what  we  have  all  heard?"  "No,"  said  Li. 
"He  was  standing  alone  once,  when  I  was  passing 
through  the  court  with  hasty  steps,  and  he  said  to 
me,  'Have  you  read  the  Odes?'  On  my  replying, 
'  Not  yet,'  he  added,  '  If  you  do  not  learn  the  Odes, 
you  will  not  be  fit  to  converse  with.'  Another  day 
in  the  same  place  and  the  same  way,  he  said  to  me, 
'  Have  you  read  the  rules  of  Propriety  ? '  On  my 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  191 

replying,  '  Not  yet,'  he  added,  '  If  you  do  not  learn 
the  rules  of  Propriety,  your  character  cannot  be 
established.'  I  have  heard  only  these  two  things  from 
him."  The  disciple  was  delighted,  and  observed: 
"  I  asked  one  thing,  and  I  have  got  three  things.  I 
have  heard  about  the  Odes.  I  have  heard  about 
the  rules  of  Propriety.  I  have  also  heard  that  the 
superior  man  maintains  a  distant  reserve  towards 
his  son." 

In  forming  an  opinion  of  Confucius,  it  is  well  to 
consider  what  his  immediate  disciples  thought  of  him. 
Among  their  utterances  we  find  the  following :  "  Our 
master  is  benign,  upright,  courteous,  temperate,  and 
complaisant."  "  The  master  is  mild  and  yet  digni- 
fied, majestic  and  yet  not  fierce,  respectful  and  yet 
easy."  "The  talents  and  virtues  of  other  men  are 
hillocks  and  mounds,  which  may  be  stepped  over. 
His  are  like  the  sun  and  moon,  which  cannot  be 
stepped  over."  "  Our  master  cannot  be  attained  unto, 
just  as  the  heavens  cannot  be  gone  up  to  by  a  stair." 


192  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

"  From  the  birth  of  mankind  until  now,  there  has 
never  been  another  like  our  master."  Those  whom 
he  personally  taught  and  led,  those  who  accepted 
and  followed  him,  declared  him  to  be  among  men, 
"As  the  dragon  among  quadrupeds,  the  phoenix 
among  birds,  the  mountain  among  hillocks,  and  the 
sea  among  rain-pools.'*  Their  judgment  has  been 
sustained  by  the  masses  of  Chinese  scholars  from 
that  time  to  this.  Confucius  is  to  all  his  compatriots 
the  perfect  example  of  social  virtue,  of  intellectual 
culture,  of  political  wisdom,  and  of  moral  excellence. 
He  is  their  ideal  man,  and  his  sayings  are  consid- 
ered a  sufficient  guide  to  all  the  duties  of  life, 
whether  the  inquirer  be  monarch  or  peasant.  No  word 
of  disrespect  toward  him  is  ever  uttered  by  high  or 
low.  Whatever  native  superstition  a  Chinaman  may 
practise,  or  whatever  foreign  religion  he  may  adopt, 
he  always  treats  Confucius  reverentially.  At  present 
the  number  of  Confucianists  are  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions. Confucian  books,  and  commentaries  upon  them, 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  193 

constitute  the  bulk  of  all  the  libraries,  and  the 
curriculum  of  all  the  schools  of  the  empire.  For 
more  than  twelve  centuries  all  civil  officers  have 
been  selected  from  among  the  successful  competitors 
in  the  examinations  upon  these  books.  Every  man 
in  authority  is  versed  in  all  that  is  recorded  of 
Confucius,  and  in  the  ancient  literature  and  usages 
that  he  preserved.  All  learning  and  all  political 
power  are  gained  at  his  shrine.  It  may  be  said  that 
the  private,  social,  and  public  life  of  every  indi- 
vidual in  China  is  other  than  it  would  have  been 
had  Confucius  never  lived.  Directly  and  indirectly, 
the  rules  for  correct  living,  enunciated  by  him,  affect 
the  doings  of  all  members  of  all  classes  from  birth 
to  death.  No  other  teacher  since  the  world  began 
has  had  equal  practical  influence  on  the  conduct  of 
an  equal  number  of  human  beings.  To  a  great  extent 
he  has  formed  the  character  of  the  Chinese.  In  fact, 
one  may  trace  many  of  their  distinguishing  traits 
directly  to  him,  though  in  the  reproduction  the 


194  A   CORNER    OF    CATHAY. 

characteristic  is  sometimes  modified  or  exaggerated. 
He  was  intensely  conservative,  seeking  knowledge 
only  in  one  direction,  and  among  the  ancients.  His 
compatriots  also  gaze  forever  backward,  holding  with 
invincible  bigotry  to  that  which  is  sanctified  by 
antiquity.  Confucius  believed  his  country  to  be 
the  centre  and  main  portion  of  a  flat  world;  and, 
since  his  time,  his  countrymen  have  seen  no  reason 
for  investigating  this  subject,  and  have  taken  no 
forward  step  in  art,  science,  or  literature,  except 
such  as  they  have  been  forced  to  make  by  outside 
powers.  That  which  is  ancient  is  sacred,  and  that 
which  has  always  been  ought  always  to  be.  One 
of  the  most  common  expressions  of  disapproval  among 
the  Chinese,  even  of  things  apparently  old,  is  this: 
"It  is  not  like  the  ancient  pattern." 

How  far  the  example  of  Confucius  in  once  break- 
ing his  parole  has  affected  the  habits  of  his  followers 
in  the  present  century  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but 
certain  it  is  that  mendacity  is  universal  among  them, 


CONFUCIUS    AND    HIS   TEACHINGS.  195 

and  that  being  discovered  in  a  falsehood  produces 
no  sense  of  shame.  A  lie  that  does  no  known  harm 
is  considered  to  have  in  it  no  quality  of  evil.  Once, 
when  on  his  way  to  Wei,  Confucius  was  laid  hold 
of  by  a  rebellious  officer  of  the  state,  and  made  to 
promise  that  he  would  not  proceed  to  the  capital. 
Notwithstanding  this,  he  continued  his  route,  and 
when  one  of  his  disciples  asked  him  whether  it  was 
right  to  violate  an  oath  lie  had  taken,  he  replied, 
"  It  was  a  forced  oath ;  the  spirits  do  not  hear 
such."  Had  Confucius  known  how  many  millions  of 
spirits  dwelling  in  human  bodies  were  thereafter  to 
hear  of  this  oath  and  its  violation,  he  would  doubt- 
less have  kept  it,  for  example's  sake,  though  the 
keeping  might  have  been  very  inconvenient.  But 
he  did  not  know  he  was  to  be  made  into  a  god, 
and,  through  ignorance,  underrated  his  responsibility. 
This  one  known  slip  in  practice  has  doubtless  greatly 
weakened  the  force  of  his  iterated  injunctions  to 
truthfulness. 


196  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

His  dread  of  inconsistency  was  expensively  mani- 
fested on  one  occasion,  when,  in  travelling,  he  found 
that  a  former  host  of  his  had  died,  and  that  the 
funeral  ceremonies  were  going  on  in  the  house.  He 
went  in  to  condole  with  the  mourners,  and  on  return- 
ing to  his  carriage  he  told  a  disciple,  Tsze-kung,  to 
take  one  of  the  horses  and  give  it  as  a  contribu- 
tion toward  the  expenses  of  the  funeral.  Tsze-kung 
remonstrated,  saying,  "You  never  did  such  a  thing 
at  the  funeral  of  any  of  your  disciples ;  is  it  not  too 
great  a  gift  on  this  occasion  of  the  death  of  an  old 
host  ? "  Confucius  responded  :  "  When  I  went  in, 
my  presence  brought  a  burst  of  grief  from  the  chief 
mourner,  and  I  joined  him  with  my  tears.  I  dislike 
the  thought  of  my  tears  not  being  followed  by  any- 
thing. Do  it,  my  child."  And  the  Chinese  of  the 
present  day  are  not  only  careful  to  express  no  more 
sympathy  than  will  accord  with  the  amount  of  help 
given,  but  they  expect  from  others  material  good  that 
is  great  in  proportion  to  the  expression  of  interest  or 
of  affection. 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS. 

Perhaps  the  contempt  which  the  Chinese  feel 
toward  one  who  boasts,  and  their  tendency  to  mock 
humility,  may  have  been  increased  by  the  commenda- 
tion which  Confucius  gave  to  Mang-che-fan,  who, 
having  gallantly  placed  himself  in  the  rear  on  an 
occasion  of  flight,  whipped  up  his  horse  as  they  were 
about  to  enter  a  place  of  safety,  saying,  "  It  is  not 
that  I  dare  to  be  last :  my  horse  would  not  advance." 
The  apology  was  false  and  weak,  but  Confucius  saw 
in  it  nothing  but  what  was  worthy  of  praise.  One 
who  studies  both  him  and  his  compatriots,  comes  to 
feel  that  their  formal,  wearisome,  and  wholly  unreal 
self-depreciation  would  have  pleased  their  great 
teacher. 

The  intense  love  of  ceremony  manifested  by  Con- 
fucius, and  evident  throughout  his  writings,  has  had 
much  to  do  in  forming  the  customs  of  his  people. 
His  is  the  only  country  which  has  a  section  of  its 
legislative  body  devoted  to  the  maintenance  and  pro- 
mulgation of  its  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  in  which 


198  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

the  minutise  of  its  established  manners  are  so  gene- 
rally observed,  that  in  China  one  may  justly  doubt 
the  scholarship  of  a  man  who  walks  rapidly,  or  the 
social  quality  of  a  woman  who  crosses  her  feet.  His 
devotion  to  etiquette  and  ceremonial  usage  has  riveted 
upon  his  people  heavy  shackles,  which  not  only  re- 
strain them  from  license,  but  which  withhold  them 
from  wholesome  liberty  of  action.  Under  his  elabo- 
rate rules,  every  act  of  life  is  performed  mechanically, 
and  the  actor  never  knows  the  joy  of  simplicity  and 
spontaneity,  the  two  wings  on  which  the  soul  mounts 
and  is  refreshed. 

Some  one  inquired  of  Confucius,  "  What  do  you 
say  concerning  the  principle  that  injury  should  be 
recompensed  with  kindness  ?  "  He  replied,  "  Recom- 
pense injury  with  justice,  and  recompense  kindness 
with  kindness.  He  who  recompenses  injury  with 
kindness  is  a  man  who  is  careful  of  his  person."  To 
this,  a  commentator  of  the  second  century  adds,  that 
"to  recompense  injury  with  kindness  would  be  incor- 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  199 

rect  on  the  part  of  propriety."  The  Chinese  of  the 
present  invariably  look  upon  submission  to  injustice 
as  an  acknowledgment  of  weakness  and  inferiority, 
and  are  tempted  by  it  into  contempt,  extortion,  or 
oppression. 

The  master's  utterance  of  the  golden  rule,  in  its 
negative  form,  "Do  nothing  to  others  which  you 
would  not  have  others  do  to  you,"  was  a  noble  one ; 
but  it  seems  in  practice  to  be  less  admirable  than  the 
affirmative  command.  The  Chinese  are  really  addicted 
in  a  wonderful  and  commendable  way  to  letting  others 
alone ;  they  are  neither  obtrusive  nor  officious.  But 
an  act  of  pure  chivalry  is  seldom  to  be  beheld  among 
the  four  hundred  millions.  Foreigners  who  have  lived 
among  them  for  tens  of  years  have  never  seen  a 
chivalrous  soul  dash  out  to  rescue  a  suffering  captive, 
nor  save  a  stranger  who  was  in  peril. 

Confucius  never  conceived  of  any  form  of  govern- 
ment beside  a  despotism ;  he  never  thought  of  woman 
as  anything  other  than  the  chattel  of  man ;  he  was 


200  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

not  in  advance  of  his  age.  He  upheld  in  strong  terms 
the  duty  of  blood  revenge,  and  entertained  no  thought 
of  obtaining  more  perfect  justice,  by  leaving  vengeance 
in  other  hands  than  that  of  the  wronged.  He  said : 
"  With  the  slayer  of  his  father  a  man  may  not  live 
under  the  same  heaven ;  against  the  slayer  of  his 
brother  a  man  must  never  have  to  go  home  to  fetch 
a  weapon;  with  the  slayer  of  his  friend  a  man  may 
not  live  in  the  same  state." 

It  is  a  moot  question  whether  Confucianism  is  a 
religion.  Long  before  the  days  of  Confucius,  and 
probably  five  thousand  years  ago,  the  Chinese  wor- 
shipped the  spirits  of  the  hills  and  rivers,  and  believed 
in  the  continuance  of  the  soul  after  death.  They 
divide  spiritual  beings  into  three  classes,  Heaven,  that 
which  is  highest  of  all  things,  and  that  which  is 
appealed  to  for  justice ;  gods,  the  beneficent  immortals 
having  their  abode  in  the  heavens  with  the  Supreme 
Ruler;  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  inhabiting  Hades,  and 
generally  considered  harmful  to  the  living.  The  wor- 


CONFUCIUS   AND    HIS    TEACHINGS.  201 

ship  of  ancestors  was  practised  long  before  the  time 
of  Confucius,  and  was  sustained  by  him.  Reward  and 
retribution  were  regarded  as  the  natural  outcome  of 
wise  or  evil  conduct,  as  was  expressed  by  a  minister 
of  Loo,  who,  535  B.C.,  gave  orders  that  his  son  should 
become  the  disciple  of  Confucius,  referring  to  the 
ancestors  of  the  sage,  and  saying  that  in  him  was 
about  to  be  verified  the  frequent  statement  of  an 
eminent  scholar,  that,  "If  a  wise  and  good  man  does 
not  get  distinguished  in  his  own  time,  there  is  sure 
to  be  among  his  posterity  some  one  of  vast  intelli- 
gence." This  is  the  form  in  which  the  doctrine  of 
reward  is  held  by  Chinese  moralists,  "Virtue  and 
vice  have  their  appropriate  issues ;  if  not  in  the 
experience  of  the  individual,  certainly  in  that  of  his 
posterity." 

Confucius  did  not  originate  the  religion  of  his 
country,  but  handed  it  down  from  prehistoric  times. 
He  was,  as  he  himself  declared,  "  a  transmitter,  not  a 
maker;  believing  in  and  loving  the  ancients."  He 


202  A   CORNER    OF    CATHAY. 

pretended  to  no  revelation  of  divine  truth,  and  would 
not  have  himself  regarded  as  a  sage,  saying :  "  I  am  not 
one  who  was  born  in  the  possession  of  knowledge ;  I 
am  one  who  is  fond  of  antiquity  and  earnest  in  seeking 
it  there.  I  learn  without  satiety,  and  teach  without 
being  tired."  While  he  never  declared  himself  out- 
rightly  against  anything  believed  in  or  practised  by 
the  ancients,  he  showed  no  interest  in  any  part  of  their 
creed  which  was  not  practical.  He  said,  "To  give 
one's  self  earnestly  to  the  duties  due  to  man,  and 
while  respecting  spiritual  beings  to  keep  aloof  from 
them,  may  be  called  wisdom."  One  of  the  foremost 
of  his  disciples  once  asked  him  about  the  service  of 
the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  he  replied,  "  While  you 
are  not  able  to  serve  men,  how  can  you  serve  their 
spirits?"  The  disciple  went  on,  saying,  "I  venture 
to  ask  about  death,"  and  he  was  answered,  "While 
you  do  not  know  life,  how  can  you  know  death?" 
Another  distinguished  follower  asked  him  whether 
the  dead  had  knowledge  of  the  services  rendered 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  203 

to  them.  The  master  replied :  "  If  I  were  to  say  the 
dead  have  such  knowledge,  I  am  afraid  the  filial  sons 
and  dutiful  grandsons  would  injure  their  substance 
in  paying  the  last  offices  to  the  departed ;  and  if  I 
were  to  say  that  the  dead  have  not  such  knowledge, 
I  am  afraid  the  unftlial  sons  would  leave  their  parents 
unburied.  You  need  not  wish  to  learn  whether  the 
dead  have  such  knowledge  or  not.  There  is  no  present 
urgency  about  the  point.  Hereafter  you  will  know 
it  for  yourselves."  He  habitually  avoided  the  dis- 
cussion of  subjects  that  were  unprofitable.  "  He  did 
not  like  to  talk  about  extraordinary  things,  feats  of 
strength,  states  of  disorder,  nor  spiritual  beings."  He 
did  not  speculate  on  the  creation  of  man,  nor  seek  to 
know  about  his  hereafter.  In  his  character  of  student 
and  preserver  of  the  usages  of  the  ancients  he  upheld 
the  laws  of  the  emperors  Yu  and  Shun,  who  had 
reigned  gloriously  seventeen  hundred  years  before  him, 
and  he  went  from  ruler  to  ruler,  striving  to  find  one 
who  would  learn  to  reign  as  they  did. 


204  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

Confucius  constantly  urged  the  fulfilment  of  the 
duties  arising  from  the  five  natural  human  relation- 
ships. He  enunciated  numerous  wise  sayings,  which 
have  remained  current  among  his  people,  and  of  which 
the  following  are  examples :  — 

"  Virtue  is  not  left  to  stand  alone ;  he  who  prac- 
tises it  will  have  neighbours." 

"  If  a  thing  be  really  hard,  it  may  be  ground  with- 
out being  made  thin ;  and  if  it  be  really  white,  it  may 
be  steeped  in  a  dark  fluid  without  being  made  black." 

"Fine  words  and  an  insinuating  appearance  are 
seldom  associated  with  true  virtue." 

"  He  who  exercises  government  by  means  of  his 
virtue,  may  be  compared  to  the  north  polar  star  — 
which  keeps  its  place,  and  all  the  stars  turn  toward  it." 

"In  the  Book  of  Poetry  there  are  three  hundred 
pieces,  but  the  design  of  them  all  may  be  embraced 
in  one  sentence :  Have  no  depraved  thoughts." 

"  Learning,  without  thought,  is  labour  lost ;  thought, 
without  learning,  is  perilous." 


CONFUCIUS    AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  205 

"It  is  only  the  truly  virtuous  man  who  can  love, 
or  who  can  hate  others." 

"A  man  should  say,  I  am  not  concerned  that  I 
have  no  place ;  I  am  concerned  how  I  may  fit  myself 
for  one ;  I  am  not  concerned  that  I  am  not  known ;  I 
seek  to  be  worthy  to  be  known." 

"  The  reason  why  the  ancients  did  not  readily  give 
utterance  to  their  words  was,  that  they  feared  their 
actions  should  not  come  up  to  them." 

"  Where  the  solid  qualities  are  in  excess  of  accom- 
plishments, we  have  rusticity;  where  the  accomplish- 
ments are  in  excess  of  the  solid  qualities,  we  have 
the  manners  of  a  clerk ;  when  the  accomplishments 
and  the  solid  qualities  are  equally  blended,  we  have 
the  man  of  complete  virtue." 

"  Men  of  principle  are  sure  to  be  bold,  but  those 
who  are  bold  may  not  always  be  men  of  principle." 

"  Those  whose  courses  are  different  cannot  lay 
plans  for  one  another." 

To   his   disciples,  and  to  the  potentates  over  whom 


206  A    COKNElt    OF    CATHAY. 

his  soul  yearned,  Confucius  perpetually  held  up  an 
ideal  man,  and  asked  them  to  be  like  this  pattern. 
What  he  thought  a  man  should  be  is  set  forth  in  the 
following  selections  from  the  "Analects":  — 

"  He  who  aims  to  be  a  man  of  complete  virtue,  in 
his  food  does  not  seek  to  gratify  his  appetite,  nor  in 
his  dwelling-place  does  he  seek  the  appliances  of 
ease ;  he  is  earnest  in  what  he  is  doing,  and  careful 
in  his  speech ;  he  frequents  the  company  of  men  of 
principle  that  he  may  be  rectified." 

"The  superior  man  is  catholic,  and  not  partisan; 
the  mean  man  is  partisan,  and  not  catholic." 

"  The  superior  man  in  the  world  does  not  set  his 
mind  either  for  or  against  anything;  what  is  right, 
he  will  follow." 

"The  superior  man,  in  regard  to  what  he  does  not 
know,  shows  a  cautious  reserve." 

"  The  superior  man  is  modest  in  his  speech,  but 
exceeds  in  his  actions.  The  superior  man  acts  be- 
fore he  speaks,  and  afterward  speaks  according  to  his 
actions." 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  207 

"  The  superior  man  does  not  promote  a  man  simply 
on  account  of  his  words,  nor  does  he  put  aside  good 
words  because  of  the  man." 

"  The  superior  man  is  correctly  firm,  and  not  firm 
merely." 

"  What  the  superior  man  seeks  is  in  himself ;  what 
the  mean  man  seeks  is  in  others." 

"  The  object  of  the  superior  man  is  truth.  The 
superior  man  is  anxious  lest  he  should  not  get  truth ; 
he  is  not  anxious  lest  poverty  come  upon  him." 

"  There  are  three  things  of  which  the  superior  man 
stands  in  awe.  He  stands  in  awe  of  the  ordinances 
of  Heaven,  he  stands  in  awe  of  great  men,  he  stands 
in  awe  of  the  words  of  sages." 

"  The  man  who  in  view  of  gain  thinks  of  right- 
eousness, who  in  view  of  danger  is  prepared  to  give 
up  his  life,  and  who  does  not  forget  an  old  agree- 
ment, however  far  back  it  extends,  such  a  man  may 
be  reckoned  a  complete  man." 

"  The  superior  man  cultivates  himself  so  as  to 
give  rest  to  others." 


208  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

"The  determined  scholar  and  the  man  of  virtue 
will  not  seek  to  live  at  the  expense  of  injuring 
their  virtue.  They  will  even  sacrifice  their  lives 
to  preserve  their  virtue  complete." 

"  Tsze-kung  said,  '  What  do  you  pronounce  con- 
cerning a  poor  man  who  does  not  flatter,  and  a 
rich  man  who  is  not  proud?'  The  Master  replied, 
'  They  will  do ;  but  they  are  not  equal  to  him  who, 
though  poor,  is  yet  cheerful,  and  to  him  who,  though 
rich,  loves  the  rules  of  propriety.' " 

"The  superior  man  helps  the  distressed,  but  does 
not  add  to  the  wealth  of  the  rich." 

"The  superior  man  seeks  to  develop  the  admi- 
rable qualities  of  men,  and  does  not  seek  to  develop 
their  bad  qualities.  The  mean  man  does  the  oppo- 
site of  this." 

"  The  man  of  perfect  virtue,  wishing  to  be  estab- 
lished himself,  seeks  also  to  establish  others ;  wish- 
ing to  be  enlarged  himself,  he  seeks  also  to  enlarge 
others." 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  209 

"  The  superior  man  thinks  of  virtue ;  the  small 
man  thinks  of  comfort.  The  superior  man  thinks 
of  the  sanctions  of  the  moral  law;  the  small  man 
thinks  of  the  favours  he  may  receive." 

"Tsze-kung  said,  'Has  the  superior  man  his 
hatreds  also  ? '  The  Master  said,  '  He  has  his  hatreds. 
He  hates  those  who  proclaim  the  evils  of  others. 
He  hates  the  man  who,  being  in  low  station,  slan- 
ders his  superiors.  He  hates  those  who  have  valour 
merely,  and  are  unobservant  of  propriety.  He  hates 
those  who  are  forward  and  determined,  and  at  the 
same  time  of  contracted  understanding.' " 

"  Tan-che  asked  about  perfect  virtue.  The  Master 
said,  '  It  is,  in  retirement,  to  be  sedately  grave ;  in 
the  management  of  business,  to  be  reverently  atten- 
tive ;  in  intercourse  with  others,  to  be  strictly 
sincere.' " 

This  ideal  is  a  high  one.  No  asceticism  is  incul- 
cated. If  all  the  doctrines  of  Confucius  were  ac- 
cepted and  acted  upon  by  all  everywhere,  through  all 


210  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

time,  they  would  not  destroy  the  human  race  as 
would  the  doctrines  of  Buddhism  in  which  celibacy 
and  mendicancy  are  set  forth  as  duties.  Priests 
and  nuns  are  not  popular  among  the  thrifty,  pos- 
terity-desiring Confucianists.  It  seems  fair  to 
test  the  truth  of  a  doctrine  by  the  query  whether, 
if  it  were  practised  by  all,  everywhere  and  forever, 
it  would  conduce  to  the  well-being  of  the  human 
family.  Any  system  which  does  not  permit  all  to 
enter  upon  a  struggle  for  the  attainment  of  that 
which  it  holds  to  be  the  highest  good,  lacks  the 
basis  of  justice,  and  must  eventually  fall.  Tested 
by  this  standard,  the  Superior  Man  of  Confucius 
appears  fit  to  be  multiplied  indefinitely  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  worthy  to  inherit  it  all,  and  to 
find  the  highest  good  in  being  himself.  Why,  then, 
has  the  teaching  of  Confucius,  through  twenty-three 
hundred  years,  in  the  most  populous  of  empires,  pro- 
duced so  few  Superior  Men?  It  is  true  that  no 
religion  or  moral  philosophy  yet  promulgated  has 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS   TEACHINGS.  211 

withheld  all  its  followers  from  fraud,  malice,  and 
uncleaimess,  nor  made  them  all  just,  sincere,  and 
brave.  But  when  one  considers  the  excellence  of 
the  ethical  teaching  of  Confucius,  the  length  of 
time  it  has  been  accepted,  and  the  thoroughness 
with  which  it  has  been  inculcated  in  a  vast  and 
isolated  nation,  the  moral  results  appear  meagre. 
During  a  residence  of  a  score  of  years  among 
Confucianists,  I  have  learned  that  no  people  have 
a  clearer  perception  of  right  and  wrong.  Conscience 
is  in  them  a  discriminating,  but  not  a  motive,  power. 
They  can  set  forth  the  law  of  righteousness  with 
amazing  delicacy  and  exactitude,  and  at  the  same 
time  entertain  sufficient  private  reasons  for  not 
following  it.  I  have  humbly  tried  to  solve  this 
puzzle,  and  have  for  myself  reached  a  conclusion. 
The  ultimate  reason  for  good  behaviour  under  the 
Confucian  theory  is  the  desirability  of  being  a  perfect 
man,  and  enjoying  the  rewards  of  perfection.  In 
one  form  or  another  Confucius  perpetually  iterates 


212  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

this  saying,  "To  be  able  to  practise  five  things 
everywhere  under  heaven  constitutes  perfect  virtue, 
—  gravity,  generosity,  sincerity,  earnestness,  and  kind- 
ness. If  you  are  grave,  you  will  not  be  treated  with 
disrespect.  If  you  are  generous,  you  will  win  all.  If 
you  are  sincere,  people  will  repose  trust  in  you.  If 
you  are  earnest,  you  will  accomplish  much.  If  you 
are  kind,  this  will  enable  you  to  employ  the  services 
of  others."  To  be  a  model  of  correct  deportment, 
and  an  example  of  perfect  character,  is  no  mean 
aspiration,  but  it  is,  after  all,  a  selfish  aim.  He  who 
fulfils  all  duties  through  a  desire  for  personal  per- 
fection, and  in  consideration  of  the  advantages  accru- 
ing to  himself  therefrom,  is  less  noble  than  he  who 
fulfils  the  same  duties  solely  through  regard  for 
the  welfare  of  those  whom  he  serves.  He  who  acts 
with  the  motive  of  obtaining  present  or  future 
reward  for  himself,  or  with  the  object  of  securing  the 
approval  of  any  being,  visible  or  invisible,  is  less  apt 
to  have  a  constant  reason  for  restraining  his  harmful 


CONFUCIUS   AND   HIS  TEACHINGS.  213 

propensities,  and  for  doing  what  is  best  for  his 
neighbour,  than  has  he  who  loves  his  neighbour  as 
himself.  It  seems  to  be  by  a  natural  psychological 
process  that  "he  that  loveth  is  born  of  God."  In 
direct  ratio  to  one's  knowledge  of  the  good  and 
evil  effects  of  what  he  does,  and  to  the  reality  of 
his  regard  for  the  well-being  of  others,  is  his  effort 
after  righteousness. 

Whatever  the  errors  and  the  limitations  of  Con- 
fucius, he  lived  nobly,  esteeming  lightly,  as  do  all 
the  immortals,  every  worldly  emolument.  In  brave 
and  patient  toil,  in  hardship  and  humility,  he  held 
his  ideal  before  his  countrymen.  They  have  accepted 
it,  and  exalted  him.  And  when  the  science  of  Com- 
parative Ethics  shall  have  from  the  enlightened 
world  the  esteem  it  deserves,  then  the  moral  philos- 
ophy of  Confucius  will  have  due  study  in  lands 
other  than  his  own. 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC 
ARTS. 

TAUISM,  the  theosophy  of  China,  is  based  upon 
the  teachings  of  Laou-Tze,  and  its  chief  sacred  book 
is  the  one  volume  that  he  wrote.  Laou-Tze,  or  the 
aged  philosopher,  was  born  604  B.C.,  in  the  Honan 
Province,  Central  China.  Popular  tradition  declares 
that  he  was  not  brought  forth  till  eighty-one  years 
after  his  conception,  and  that  snowy  hair  and  an 
appearance  of  great  age  distinguished  him  through 
life.  Nothing  is  known  of  his  parentage,  except  that 
he  was  of  the  Li  family.  His  individual  name,  Hi 
the  Flat-eared,  was,  doubtless,  like  that  of  many  of 
his  countrymen,  given  on  account  of  a  personal  pecu- 
liarity. He  was  librarian  at  the  royal  court  of  Chow, 
and  when  Confucius  visited  the  capital  in  517  B.C., 

214 


WOMEN    AT    A    SHRINE 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      215 

he  sought  Laou-Tze  in  order  to  converse  with  him 
about  the  ancient  ceremonies.  Confucius  was  then 
thirty-five,  and  Laou-Tze  eighty-eight  years  old.  It 
is  recorded  that  after  the  interview,  Confucius  said 
to  his  disciples,  "  I  know  how  birds  can  fly,  fishes 
swim,  and  beasts  run.  But  the  runner  may  be  snared, 
the  swimmer  hooked,  and  the  flyer  shot  by  the  arrow. 
But  there  is  the  dragon.  I  cannot  tell  how  he  mounts 
on  the  wind  through  the  clouds  to  heaven.  To-day 
I  have  seen  Laou-Tze,  and  can  only  compare  him  to 
the  dragon." 

Laou-Tze  chose  to  remain  obscure,  and  gathered 
about  him  no  school;  but  there  is  evidence  that 
he  had  disciples  who  practised  in  their  homes, 
and  taught  in  their  fields,  the  doctrines  that  he 
brooded  over.  After  long  service  in  his  civil  office, 
seeing  that  the  dynasty  was  decaying,  he  left  the 
capital  and  went  through  the  frontier  pass  that  led 
out  of  the  royal  domain  to  the  northwest.  The  gate- 
keeper, named  Yin  Hi,  recognized  him,  and  said  to 


216  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

him,  "You  are  about  to  withdraw  yourself  out  of 
sight;  I  pray  you  first  compose  for  me  a  book." 
Laou-Tze  remained  with  the  gate-keeper,  and  wrote 
a  book  of  five  thousand  words.  He  then  went  away 
to  the  west,  and  nothing  more  was  ever  heard  of 
him.  Unlike  Confucius,  he  founded  no  house ;  and 
the  heads  of  the  sect  that  calls  itself  after  his  doc- 
trines are  not  of  his  lineage.  The  book  which  he 
wrote,  the  only  one  which  has  come  down  to  us 
from  his  pen,  when  translated  into  English,  fills  but 
sixty-two  octavo  pages.  It  is  entitled  "  The  Classic 
of  Reason  and  Virtue,"  and  it  sets  forth  a  system 
of  philosophy  which  advocates  cleanness  and  empti- 
ness of  heart  as  the  highest  objects  of  aspiration  and 
the  cure  for  all  ills.  It  declares  that  the  primal  cause 
and  ultimate  reason  for  all  things  is  Tau ;  which  no 
synalogue  has  been  able  to  define  in  a  single  phrase, 
but  which  Laou-Tze  explains  as  follows :  "  There  was 
something  chaotic  in  nature,  which  existed  before 
heaven  and  earth.  It  was  still ;  it  was  void.  It  stood 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      217 

alone,  and  was  not  changed.  It  pervaded  everywhere, 
and  was  not  endangered.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the 
mother  of  the  universe.  I  know  not  its  name,  but 
give  it  the  title  of  Tau" 

"Man  takes  his  law  from  the  Earth;  the  Earth 
takes  its  law  from  Heaven ;  Heaven  takes  its  law 
from  Tau;  and  Tau  takes  its  law  from  what  is  in 
itself." 

"  We  look  at  it,  and  do  not  see  it ;  it  is  named 
the  colourless.  We  listen  for  it,  and  do  not  hear  it; 
it  is  named  the  soundless.  We  try  to  grasp  it,  and 
do  not  get  hold  of  it;  it  is  named  the  incorporeal. 
With  these  three  qualities  it  cannot  be  investigated 
and  defined;  and  hence  we  blend  them  together  and 
form  a  unity." 

The  modern  followers  of  Tau  are  unable  to  define 
it  more  fully  than  did  its  ancient  discoverer.  It  is 
not  a  person ;  it  is  not  reason  as  exercised  by  a  con- 
scious being;  it  is  not  a  human  rule  of  righteousness. 
The  word  in  common  colloquial  utterances  is  used 


218  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

to  express  the  concept  of  right  reasoning ;  the  under- 
lying principles  which  determine  the  course  of  things ; 
the  essentially  correct  method  of  action;  the  way 
which  accords  with  the  eternal  law  of  nature.  When 
the  Chinese  wish  to  say,  "He  has  right  on  his  side," 
they  declare  that  "he  is  in  harmony  with  Tau" 
Every  Chinaman  shrinks  before  proof  that  what  he 
does  or  maintains  is  contrary  to  Tau.  Whatever  Tau 
may  be,  as  an  idea  in  the  Mongolian  mind,  it  theoret- 
ically receives  supreme  reverence. 

Throughout  "  The  Classic  of  Reason  and  Virtue " 
humility  is  inculcated.  The  lowly  and  weak  are 
exalted  above  the  hard  and  masterful.  Laou-Tze  says : 
"Man  in  his  life  is  supple  and  tender;  in  his  death 
he  is  rigid  and  strong.  It  is  the  same  with  every- 
thing. Grass  and  trees  are  in  their  life  weak  and 
tender,  and  in  their  death  withered  and  tough. 
Therefore  rigidity  and  toughness  are  the  attendants 
of  death,  and  tenderness  and  weakness  are  the  attend- 
ants of  life." 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC    ARTS.      219 

War  is  lamented,  ambition  is  disesteemed,  and  even 
the  exaltation  of  merit  is  discountenanced,  on  the 
ground  that  it  excites  contention.  "  Not  exalting 
worth  keeps  the  people  from  rivalry.  Not  prizing 
things  hard  to  procure  keeps  the  people  from  theft. 
Not  looking  on  objects  of  desire  keeps  the  heart  from 
disorder.  The  government  of  the  sage  consists  ac- 
cordingly in  emptying  the  heart  of  desires  and  filling 
the  stomach;  in  weakening  the  will  and  strengthen- 
ing the  bones;  in  continually  keeping  the  people 
from  the  knowledge  and  the  desire  of  evil ;  and  in 
making  those  who  have  knowledge  not  dare  to  act." 

Avarice  is  reckoned  as  its  own  punishment,  and 
the  accumulation  of  wealth  is  discouraged.  "  When 
gold  and  gems  fill  the  hall,  nothing  can  protect 
them."  "The  sage  does  not  lay  up  treasures.  The 
more  he  does  for  others,  the  more  he  is  increased." 
"There  is  no  calamity  more  direful  than  the  desire 
of  possessing." 

Quietism    is    always    enjoined.     The    greatest    and 


220  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

best  of  things  is  Tau.  In  order  to  be  in  accord  with 
it,  one  must  have  the  mind  emptied  of  all  worldly 
ambitions,  must  be  free  from  all  prejudices  and  pre- 
occupations, and  must  be  in  a  condition  of  receptivity. 
This  is  the  condition  essential  to  all  true  usefulness. 
"It  is  the  way  of  Tau  not  to  act  from  any  personal 
motive ;  to  conduct  affairs  without  feeling  the  trouble 
of  them;  to  taste  without  being  aware  of  flavour;  to 
account  the  great  as  small,  and  the  small  as  great." 
"The  sage  deals  with  affairs  as  if  he  were  doing 
nothing,  and  performs  his  teaching  without  words. 
In  the  same  way  all  things  in  nature  shoot  up  in 
spring  without  a  word,  and  grow  without  a  claim 
for  their  production." 

These  quotations,  taken  from  "  The  Classic  of  Rea- 
son and  Virtue,"  as  translated  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  and 
published  under  the  title  "The  Speculations  of  the 
Old  Philosopher,"  show  the  trend  of  the  doctrines  of 
Laou-Tze.  Dr.  Legg,  in  his  book  on  "  The  Religions 
of  China,"  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  twenty- 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC    ARTS.      221 

five  hundred  years  ago  Laou-Tze,  in  one  terse  utter- 
ance, announced  a  principle  that  was  new  in  the 
ethics  of  the  East,  "Recompense  injury  with  kind- 
ness." When  one  of  the  disciples  of  Confucius  in- 
quired of  him  concerning  his  opinion  of  this  principle, 
he,  from  his  point  of  view  as  schoolmaster  and  magis- 
trate, uttered  his  dicta,  saying,  "  Recompense  kind- 
ness with  kindness,  and  injury  with  justice."  The 
far-sighted  acumen  of  Laou-Tze  appeared  to  Confu- 
cius to  he  nothing  more  than  the  wisdom  of  one  who 
was  "careful  of  his  person." 

Laou-Tze  was  a  hermit  rather  than  a  philosopher. 
He  withdrew  from  the  world  because  it  did  not 
please  him,  instead  of  remaining  to  fight  its  battles 
as  did  Confucius,  because  there  was  need  of  him. 
The  older  man  sought  obscurity,  despised  formalities, 
aimed  at  the  utmost  simplicity  of  mind  and  habit, 
studied  to  be  content  with  little,  and  put  away  all 
wearing  ambitions,  believing  that  the  best  was  to  be 
attained  by  and  among  the  lowly.  The  younger  sage 


222  A  CORNEB   OF  CATHAY. 

perceived  a  sanctifying  influence  in  rituals  and  cere- 
monies, was  strenuous  concerning  etiquette  and  pro- 
priety, and  spent  his  long  life  in  brave  effort  to  lead 
the  great  and  powerful  to  be  correct  ensamples  to  the 
common  folk,  who,  according  to  his  theory,  must 
imitate  their  superiors.  Both  men  were  great  and 
true,  but  the  transcendental  abstraction  from  worldly 
cares,  and  the  abstruse  doctrines  of  Laou-Tze,  have 
formed  a  foundation  for  a  system  of  superstition  that 
has  increased  through  the  ages,  while  the  practical  and 
natural  duties  of  human  relationships,  which  lie  at 
the  base  of  all  the  teachings  of  Confucius,  have, 
through  his  clear  expositions,  won  a  regard  which 
has  saved  China  from  barbarism.  Well  is  it  for  the 
great  nation  that  Confucianism,  not  Tauism,  became 
the  state  religion. 

Tauism  appears  to  have  spread  widely  during  the 
life  of  Laou-Tze,  and  to  have  gained  eminent  adhe- 
rents during  the  centuries  succeeding  his  death.  It 
seems  to  have,  also,  at  an  early  date,  coalesced  with 


CHINESE   TAUISTS    AND   THEIE    MAGIC    ARTS.      223 

ancient  superstitions,  and  to  have  become  the  creed 
of  diviners,  alchemists,  and  wonder-workers.  In  the 
third  century  B.C.  the  founder  of  the  present  empire, 
the  subjugator  of  the  feudal  states,  the  builder  of  the 
Great  Wall,  evinced  his  faith  in  its  tenets  by  fitting 
out  and  sending  off  an  expedition  in  search  of  the 
isles  of  the  immortals,  from  whence  he  hoped  to  have 
brought  to  him  an  herb  that  would  give  eternal  life. 
The  emperor  Wu,  during  his  long  reign  in  the  first 
and  second  centuries  B.C.,  was  ardently  devoted  to 
its  doctrines.  In  the  first  century  of  our  era,  the  first 
and  second  emperors  of  the  Han  dynasty  invited  to 
court  the  first  Tauist  pope.  But  it  was  not  until 
66  A.D.,  that  Laou-Tze  was  canonized,  and  ranked 
among  the  Tauist  gods  as  the  Great  Supreme,  the 
Emperor  of  the  Dark  First  Cause. 

Chang-tau-ling,  the  first  Tauist  pope  or  patriarch, 
is  said  to  have  mastered  "The  Classic  of  Reason  and 
Virtue"  at  the  early  age  of  seven.  After  arriving 
at  great  eminence  as  a  scholar,  he  declined  office, 


224  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

retired  to  a  mountain  fastness,  and  devoted  himself 
to  meditation  and  the  study  of  alchemy.  His  later 
years  were  spent  in  the  Dragon  Tiger  Mountain ;  and 
there,  after  compounding  and  swallowing  the  elixir 
of  life,  the  receipt  for  which  he  had  found  in  a  treatise 
miraculously  bestowed  upon  him  by  Laou-Tze,  he,  at 
the  age  of  123,  ascended  to  the  abodes  of  the  immor- 
tals. Before  leaving  the  earth,  he  bequeathed  his 
secret  knowledge  to  his  son,  Chang  Heng,  from  whom 
it  has  been  handed  down  to  later  patriarchs.  In 
748  A.D.,  the  reigning  emperor  confirmed  the  heredi- 
tary privileges  of  Chang-tau-ling,  with  the  title  of 
Heavenly  Master,  and  in  1016  A.D.,  the  emperor 
enfeoffed  the  existing  representative  of  the  family 
with  large  tracts  of  land.  The  Mongol  emperors 
were  also  liberal  patrons  of  the  Tauist  popes,  and  so 
secure  is  their  tenure  of  their  domains  in  the  Dragon 
Tiger  Mountain,  that  it  is  a  common  saying  that 
"however  the  empire  be  disordered  or  convulsed,  the 
Changs  (the  heirs  of  the  first  Tauist  patriarch)  and 


CHINESE  TAUISTS    AND   THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      225 

the  Khongs  (descendants  of  Confucius)  have  no  rea- 
son to  be  troubled." 

The  headship  of  the  Tauist  sect  is  said  to  be  per- 
petuated by  the  transmigration  of  the  soul  of  Chang- 
tau-ling  from  one  to  another  of  his  successors,  the  true 
heir  being  revealed  by  a  miracle.  The  office  is  not 
strictly  hereditary,  but,  upon  the  death  of  the  patriarch, 
his  family  meet,  and  cast  iron  plates,  containing  each 
a  name,  into  a  well ;  and  he  whose  name  floats  becomes 
Master.  The  Changs  have  held  the  office  of  Master 
or  pope  since  the  first  century,  with  but  one  period 
of  interruption,  having  the  seat  of  their  spiritual 
authority  in  the  Dragon  Tiger  Mountain,  in  the  Kiang 
Si  Province,  in  the  department  of  Kuang-sin,  and  the 
district  Chang-si. 

Although  Tauism  is  reckoned  heterodox,  and  is  one 
of  the  strange  doctrines  condemned  by  the  seventh 
edict  of  Khang-Hi,  it  is  everywhere  tolerated,  and  is 
even  officially  recognized.  Mayers,  in  his  "Chinese 
Government,"  says  that  "two  Tauist  office-bearers  are 


226  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

appointed  in  each  district,  department,  and  prefecture, 
throughout  the  empire,  as  principal  and  deputy.  The 
appointment  is  made  by  local  authority,  by  selection 
among  the  leading  priests,  and  is  submitted  for  ap- 
proval, when  made  by  the  subordinate  officials,  to  the 
provincial  government.  The  superior  thus  appointed 
acts  as  the  medium  of  communication  between  the 
secular  authorities  and  the  priesthood,  for  whose  gen- 
eral good  conduct  he  is  considered  responsible,  and 
over  whose  cases  of  litigation  among  themselves  he 
exercises  certain  judicial  powers.  The  superior  of  the 
Metropolitan  district  is  a  person  enjoying  much  con- 
sideration, and  wielding  no  small  amount  of  authority, 
but  the  position  elsewhere  is  attended  with  little  respect. 
"  Though  Tauism  is  not,  and  has  never  been,  the 
state  religion,  there  are  Tauist  priests  connected  with 
the  state  temples  devoted  to  the  worship  of  the 
powers  of  nature ;  and  two  hierophants  are  employed 
in  the  state  temples  in  services  intended  as  acts  of 
propitiation  in  times  of  flood  or  drought." 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR    MAGIC   ARTS.    .  227 

The  lives  of  many  Tauist  patriarchs  and  priests 
have  been  written  for  the  edification  of  believers.  For 
instance,  there  is  that  of  Chang-Liang,  one  of  the 
early  popes.  He  was  a  poor  boy,  who,  when  at  work 
in  the  fields,  saw  an  aged  man,  who  was  passing  along 
in  a  sedan-chair,  drop  one  of  his  shoes  on  the  road. 
Chang-Liang,  supposing  the  shoe  to  have  accidentally 
fallen  off,  immediately  picked  it  up  and  ran  a  long 
way  to  restore  it  to  its  owner.  The  ancient  man  gave 
him  no  thanks,  but  asked  him  if  he  would  like  to 
become  wise.  Chang-Liang  expressed  his  desire  for 
learning,  and  the  venerable  sage  told  him  to  come  to 
his  distant  house  on  a  certain  day,  at  dawn.  Chang- 
Liang  thereafter  inquired  the  way,  and  having  travelled 
on  foot  all  one  day,  and  watched  through  the  following 
night,  he  presented  himself  at  the  house  at  the 
appointed  time,  but  was  kept  waiting  till  noon  before 
he  gained  access  to  the  master.  Then  the  master 
was  seated  at  a  sumptuous  repast,  and  the  hungry 
boy  sat  with  downcast  eyes  against  the  wall,  while 


228  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

the  feast  was  slowly  consumed.  After  dining,  the  old 
man  sent  the  boy  empty  away,  saying  that  he  had 
not  that  day  leisure  for  giving  instruction,  but  that 
he  would  at  another  time  fulfil  his  promise.  At  the 
date  fixed  the  boy  again  presented  himself,  and  the 
sage  received  him  as  a  pupil,  having  ascertained, 
through  his  bringing  of  the  shoe,  that  the  boy  was 
deferential  to  the  aged;  by  his  long  waiting  without 
complaint,  that  he  was  patient;  by  his  not  looking  at 
the  food  when  he  was  hungry,  that  he  was  not  glutton- 
ous ;  and  by  his  return  after  a  repulse,  that  he  ardently 
desired  knowledge. 

A  merchant  of  the  Meng  dynasty  took  into  his 
family  an  orphan  boy  in  whom  he  perceived  extra- 
ordinary traits.  On  discovering  that  the  boy  knew 
letters  without  having  ever  been  to  school,  the  mer- 
chant suspected  that  he  was  of  supernal  origin,  and 
treated  him  with  great  respect;  but  the  women  of 
the  family  were  less  discerning,  and  they  persisted 
in  requiring  from  him  all  sorts  of  menial  services. 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND  THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      229 

One  day  when  he  was  sent  to  the  riverside  to  wash 
earthen  pickle-jars,  he  was  seen  to  crumple  them  up, 
rub  them  as  if  they  were  dish-cloths,  wring  them  out, 
and  shake  them  again  into  their  original  shape.  On 
being  told  of  this  feat,  the  merchant  became  afraid 
that  the  demands  of  the  women-folk  would  bring 
upon  himself  some  punishment  for  irreverent  treatment 
of  a  superior  being,  and  in  order  to  avert  this  danger, 
he  gave  the  boy  two  hundred  ounces  of  silver,  and 
sent  him  off  to  a  monastery.  The  boy  went  away 
and  dwelt  in  a  cave.  When  he  had  spent  all  his 
money  he  picked  up  gravel  and  put  it  into  his  pot, 
and,  while  boiling,  it  turned  into  kernels  of  white 
rice.  This  was  observed  and  was  commented  upon 
until  it  came  to  the  ears  of  the  emperor,  who  sent  for 
the  youth,  built  a  temple  for  him,  and  thereafter  had 
all  the  advantages  of  close  communication  with  an 
immortal. 

The  superstitions  of  Tauism  are  chiefly  indigenous, 
though   many   of  its   doctrines   are   foreign.       In   the 


230  A  COKNER   OF  CATHAY. 

year  65  A.D.  Buddhism  was  introduced  into  China 
from  India,  and  since  that  time  Tauism  has  been 
greatly  modified  by  Buddhist  tenets  and  practices. 
The  Tauists  saw  that  if  they  would  have  influence 
among  the  people,  they  must,  like  the  Buddhists,  have 
temples  and  monasteries,  and  must  attract  public  at- 
tention by  public  teaching.  In  Buddhist  temples  are 
three  great  images  called  the  three  precious  ones, — 
Buddha,  the  Law,  and  the  Church.  In  Tauist  tem- 
ples, also,  are  three  idols  called  the  three  pure  ones. 
The  first  is  the  Supreme  Ruler,  taken  from  the  old 
religion  of  the  country,  and  worshipped  long  before 
Laou-Tze  or  Confucius  was  born;  the  second  is  the 
holy  one,  called  Chaos,  who  was  at  the  beginning  of 
all  things;  the  third  is  Laou-Tze.  The  doctrines  of 
purgatory  and  of  metempsychosis  are  also  evidently 
taken  from  Buddhism.  Not  only  has  Tauism  coa- 
lesced with  Buddhism,  but  it  has  absorbed  and  per- 
petuated the  native  ancient  debasing  creeds.  Laou- 
Tze  taught  no  religion,  and  no  supernaturalism  of 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND   THEIR  MAGIC   ARTS.      231 

any  description;  yet,  in  the  course  of  ages,  his  doc- 
trines have  taken  on  by  accretion  a  vast  mass  of 
superstition.  Tauism  began  with  no  gods,  and  now 
its  gods  are  countless ;  it  began  with  no  form  of  wor- 
ship, and  now  its  forms  are  multifold,  costly,  and  gro- 
tesque. Its  only  ancient  sacred  book  is  "  The  Classic 
of  Reason  and  Virtue,"  and  now  reason  and  virtue  have 
in  China  no  foes  so  subtle  and  so  potent  as  its  priests. 
The  priests  are  neither  the  descendants  of  Laou-Tze, 
nor  of  the  family  of  the  popes ;  but  they  study  the 
writings  of  the  one,  and  get  instruction  from  the 
other.  They  are  supposed  to  study,  in  the  Dragon 
Tiger  Mountain,  the  occult  sciences,  and  to  attain 
supernatural  powers.  The  advanced  hierophants  are 
believed  to  know  future  events;  to  have  powers  of 
clairvoyance ;  to  be  able  to  converse  without  speech ; 
to  labour  without  fatigue ;  to  send  inanimate  objects 
to  distant  localities  without  physical  agency;  to  make 
themselves  invisible  at  will;  and  to  achieve  corporeal 
immortality.  The  pope,  by  means  of  a  magic  seal, 


232 


A  CORNER   OP   CATHAY. 


checks  or  directs  the 
demons  of  the  nether 
regions. 

The  Chinese  gener- 
ally believe  that  cer- 
tain persons  possess 
these  varied  powers. 
The  proudest  Confu- 
cianists  and  the  de- 
voutest  Buddhists  are 
alike  more  or  less  sub- 
ject to  Tauist  priest- 
craft. The  priests  are 
commonly  employed 
in  conflict  with  evil 
spirits.  Hardly  any 
domestic  undertaking 
or  public  enterprise 
is  carried  on  without 
their  coadjutorship. 


The  Seal  of  the  Tauist  Pope. 


CHINESE   TAUISTS    AND   THEIE   MAGIC    ARTS.      233 

For  example,  when  a  new  dwelling-house  is  finished, 
and  the  family  gods  have  been  transferred  to  it,  the 
owner  has  a  Tauist  priest  and  his  acolytes  come  to 
drive  out  the  demons,  before  the  human  occupants  shall 
take  up  their  abode  in  it.  They  come  by  night,  bring- 
ing bells  and  gongs,  and  set  up  a  fearful  din  of  incan- 
tation in  the  new  domicile.  They  put  oil  into  an 
iron  pan,  heat  it  to  boiling-point,  hang  it  by  its  ears 
on  a  trident,  spirt  alcohol  upon  it,  to  increase  the 
blaze,  fume,  and  smoke,  and  thrust  it  into  all  the 
corners  of  the  rooms.  At  the  same  time,  pitchforks 
and  bayonets  are  driven  through  the  air,  and  the 
priest  loudly  announces  the  name  of  the  true  owner 
and  possessor  of  the  premises,  and  declares  his  author- 
ity to  expel  all  invisible  inmates.  All  parts  of  the 
building  having  been  consecutively  ransacked  in  this 
manner,  and  the  doors  successively  shut,  the  demons 
are  supposed  to  have  been  routed.  The  neighbours, 
meanwhile,  keep  out  of  the  way,  and  close  their  own 
doors  and  windows  carefully,  lest  the  ejected  tenants 


234  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

should  take  up  a  habitation  with  them.  When  the 
demons  have  been  chased  outside  the  town,  the  family, 
in  the  early  morning,  moves  into  its  new  house. 

Every  believer  in  Tauism  expends  much  money 
upon  fortune-telling,  a  trade  that  is  largely  in  the 
hands  of  blind  men,  or  pseudo-blind  men,  who  itinerate 
in  regions  where  they  are  not  personally  known,  and 
who  profit  vastly  through  female  credulity. 

Unlike  the  Buddhist  priests,  the  Tauist  priests 
marry,  and  live  among  the  laity.  The  making  and 
sale  of  charms  and  amulets  occupies  many  priests. 
There  are  few  doors  upon  which  a  written  or  printed 
charm  is  not  affixed.  Amulets  are  commonly  worn, 
and  are  frequently  made  by  wrapping  up  a  picture 
of  the  Tauist  pope  with  ashes  taken  from  the  censers 
of  several  gods  that  are  thought  to  have  manifested 
willingness  to  exert  themselves  in  behalf  of  their 
worshippers.  The  ashes  from  each  censer  are  sepa- 
rately wrapped  in  a  scrap  of  red  calico,  and  tied  with 
red  or  green  sewing-silk.  Charms  written  by  Tauist 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND  THEIR   MAGIC   AETS.      235 

priests  are  often  included.  The  whole  number  of 
little  parcels,  perhaps  a  dozen  altogether,  are  made 
into  one  packet,  a  cubic  inch  in  bulk,  and  this  is 
worn  upon  the  neck  or  wrist  as  an  amulet,  or  is  sus- 
pended in  a  room  as  a  fetish. 

A  geomancer  who  is  considered  to  be  specially 
gifted  in  the  discerning  of  good  sites  for  graves  is 
always  employed  for  locating  the  tomb  of  a  parent. 
The  occult  influence  of  the  resting-place  of  the  dead 
upon  the  weal  of  the  living  is  believed  to  be  so 
great  that  no  man  who  has  prospered  since  the  burial 
of  his  chief  ancestor  would,  on  any  consideration,  per- 
mit a  change  in  the  configuration  of  the  landscape 
surrounding  the  tomb.  Those  upon  whom  calamity 
comes  soon  after  the  interment  of  a  parent,  remove 
the  grave  to  another  site.  Pagodas,  temples,  bridges, 
houses,  and  all  high  structures  are  thought  to  exert 
an  occult  influence  upon  the  dwellers  in  lower  situa- 
tions ;  and  bitter  feuds  between  individuals  and  be- 
tween clans  result  from  any  interference  with  the 


236  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

geomantic  condition  termed  "  the  equilibrium  of  wind 
and  water." 

The  empire  is  full  of  Tauist  necromancers,  who 
may  not  all  be  directly  connected  with  the  school  of 
the  popes,  but  they  all  have  rendezvous  among  the 
mountains,  where  they  learn  and  teach  their  art.  The 
legend  runs  that  in  the  Tang  dynasty  (620  to  907 
A.D.),  a  pope  was  walking  among  the  mountains,  and 
tapped  upon  a  rock,  saying,  "  Open !  The  Heavenly 
Master  has  come ! "  The  rock  opened,  and  disclosed 
within  it  a  chamber,  in  which  was  an  altar  and  all 
the  paraphernalia  used  in  worshipping  the  dead.  The 
pope  went  away,  the  rock  closing  behind  him,  and 
disinterred  the  bones  of  his  own  ancestors,  that  he 
might  bring  and  enclose  them  in  a  tomb  that  promised 
so  much  of  weal  to  the  posterity  of  its  occupant. 
While  he  was  gone,  a  small  boy,  who  had,  from  a 
copse  near  by,  heard  and  seen  what  had  been  said 
and  done,  ran  and  told  his  grandfather  about  it.  The 
wise  old  man  at  once  went  and  arrayed  himself  in 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND  THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      237 

his  best,  as  do  the  Chinese  when  they  know  that 
their  end  approaches,  and  went,  conducted  by  the 
boy,  to  the  rock.  He,  too,  tapped  upon  it,  saying, 
"  Open  !  The  Heavenly  Master  has  come  !  "  and  the 
rock  divided,  displaying  its  inner  chamber.  The  old 
man  entered,  telling  his  grandson  to  remain  outside 
and  watch  for  the  return  of  the  former  visitant.  As 
soon  as  the  old  man  sat  down  in  the  place  allotted 
by  custom  to  the  departed,  the  rock  closed,  leaving 
no  fissure,  and  became  the  sepulchre  of  its  occupant. 
When  the  pope  came  back  with  the  bones  of  his 
ancestors,  he  found  that  the  rock  would  not  again 
heed  his  call  for  admission,  and  he  therefore  knew 
that  some  one  had,  in  his  absence,  taken  possession 
of  it.  He  then  struck  the  rock,  saying,  "  If  he  who 
occupies  this  tomb  be  its  discoverer,  then  let  there 
ever  be  an  emperor  among  his  descendants ;  but  rf  he 
be  an  usurper,  then  let  him  have  forever  among  his 
offspring  a  king  of  demons."  Since  that  time  there 
has  always  been  among  this  old  man's  progeny  a  real 


238  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

necromancer.  When  the  first  of  these  necromancers 
died,  the  whole  family  was  called  together,  and  the 
survivor  who  could  by  incantation  make  the  dead 
man  get  up  from  the  bed  upon  which  he  had  breathed 
his  last,  and  place  himself  in  his  own  coffin,  was 
accepted  and  acknowledged  by  the  others  as  the  true 
inheritor  of  the  power  of  the  departed.  It  is  said 
that  this  test  is  the  one  whereby  the  head  of  the  body 
of  necromancers  has,  from  generation  to  generation, 
been  manifested.  The  necromancers  are  all  Tauists, 
and  claim  the  same  powers  as  the  priests. 

There  is  a  difference  between  a  necromancer  and  a 
juggler  in  Cathay.  The  latter  is  paid  for  the  amusement 
which  he  furnishes,  and  the  former  is  rewarded  for  the 
exercise  of  supposed  preternatural  powers  in  communi- 
cation with  invisible  beings.  The  juggler  plays  in 
the  open  air,  by  daylight,  and  with  simple  accoutre- 
ments. He  apparently  causes  a  gourd-seed  to  sprout, 
put  forth  leaves,  and  bear  fruit,  all  within  a  few 
minutes  of  time ;  he  slaughters  a  small  boy,  puts  the 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND  THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      239 

pieces  into  a  narrow-mouthed  jar,  and  then  by  in- 
cantation makes  the  victim  whole,  and  breaks  the 
jar  to  give  him  exit;  and  he  performs  other  tricks 
which  cause  much  wonder  and  bring  him  much  cash. 
Though  he  affects  dependence  on  elfin  aid,  his  arts 
are  not  practised  in  support  of  a  religion,  nor  by 
appeal  to  superstition.  His  exhibitions  of  skill  are 
often  more  marvellous  than  are  those  of  the  magi- 
cians ;  but  the  pretensions  of  the  latter  to  supernatural 
powers  give  them  a  peculiar  hold  on  the  imagination 
of  the  populace,  and  they  have  great  influence  for 
evil  in  all  communities.  Their  mystic  learning  is  in- 
dicated by  acts  of  which  they  appear  to  be  almost 
unconscious.  They  blow  out  a  lamp  that  stands  at 
a  distance,  by  puffing  upon  a  sheet  of  paper  held 
between  them  and  the  lamp ;  they  hold  a  dead  fish 
in  the  hand,  and  bring  it  to  life  by  breathing  gently 
upon  it ;  they  fill  their  mouths  with  boiled  rice,  and 
then  blow  the  kernels  back  in  the  form  of  live  honey- 
bees. When  they  have  cultivated  in  their  neighbours 


240  A   CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

a  conviction  that  they  are  true  sorcerers,  they  have 
many  clients  who  desire  to  learn  of  what  is  distant 
in  time  or  place,  and  who  seek  their  help  in  communi- 
cating with  invisible  beings.  They  are  considered  to 
be  the  confreres  of  the  genii,  and  to  have  learned 
their  arts. 

The  genii  are  divinities  of  the  Tauist  sect,  immor- 
tals intermediate  between  gods  and  men,  and  they 
have  the  power  of  making  themselves  invisible,  or  of 
taking  at  will  the  shape  of  any  animate  or  inanimate 
object.  The  Eight,  who  are  the  oldest  and  greatest 
of  their  kind,  are  supposed  to  have  an  habitation  in 
the  highest  heavens,  and  to  be  under  the  immediate 
tutelage  of  the  Supreme  Ruler.  They  are  patrons  of 
the  arts,  and  it  is  said  that  they  have  many  times 
been  born  as  men,  and  that  during  their  earthly  lives 
they  have  invented  all  that  is  useful  in  the  world. 
When  they  are  sent  to  take  human  form,  they  forget 
their  past,  and  are  so  like  other  people  that  their 
divine  origin  is  revealed  only  by  their  genius.  These 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND   THEIR  MAGIC   ARTS.      241 

eight  genii  can  be  traced  back  in  literature  to  the 
Tang  dynasty,  which  held  the  throne  from  620  to 
907  A.D.  Possibly  they  were  wholly  human  magicians 
of  extraordinary  gifts.  The  eight  genii,  seven  male 
and  one  female,  have  each  a  recorded  personal  origin. 
It  is  said  that  the  first  genie  was  an  old  woman  who 
lived  among  the  mountains,  and  there  found  and  ate 
a  fruit  which  made  her  immortal.  Having  herself 
partaken  of  a  fig  from  the  tree  of  life,  she  acquired, 
after  a  thousand  years,  the  power  to  discern  in  others 
a  fitness  for  continued  existence.  She  perceived  that 
Tek  Kuai  Li,  who  had  killed  himself  by  hard  study, 
ought  to  live  forever,  and  she  sent  a  messenger  to 
his  distant  grave  to  resuscitate  him.  When  Tek 
Kuai  Li  emerged  from  the  tomb,  his  legs  were  morti- 
fied, and  so  the  messenger  slew  a  dog,  and  used  two 
of  its  legs  for  making  new  ones  for  Tek  Kuai  Li. 
He  afterwards  made  new  legs  of  clay  for  the  dog,  and 
sent  it  off  alive  and  well;  but  Tek  Kuai  Li's  legs 
were  of  unequal  length,  so  that  he  ever  afterward 


242  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

limped.  When  he  returned  from  the  grave  to  his 
parents,  they  did  not  recognize  him,  and  declined  to 
receive  him  as  their  sou.  He  therefore  went  and  pur- 
sued his  studies  with  the  old  dame  who  revived  him, 
and  who  is  called  the  Mother  of  the  Genii.  He  car- 
ries a  crutch,  and  is  the  special  patron  of  conjurers. 

The  second  genius  is  Han  Cheng  Li,  who,  having 
studied  long  and  deeply  the  doctrines  of  Laou-Tze, 
heard  from  Tek  Kuai  Li  of  the  Mother  of  the  Genii 
and  her  fruit-tree,  and  sought  and  gained  her  help 
in  becoming  immortal.  He  carries  a  fan,  with  which 
he  is  said  to  fan  and  revive  the  souls  of  the  dead. 

One  day  when  this  Han  Cheng  Li  was  wandering 
on  the  hills,  he  found  the  skeleton  of  a  man  who  had 
been  left  there  unburied,  and  pity  for  the  bleaching 
bones  impelled  him  to  restore  the  dead  man  to  life. 
But  as  soon  as  the  resurrection  was  accomplished,  the 
man  accused  Han  Cheng  Li  of  having  stolen  his 
clothes,  and  dragged  him  before  a  magistrate  to 
account  for  the  theft.  Han  stated  the  case,  telling 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND  THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.      243 

the  magistrate  how  he  had  found  the  tombless  skele- 
ton, and  had,  through  compassion,  renewed  the  man's 
life.  The  magistrate  refused  to  believe  this  state- 
ment, unless  Han  would  prove  his  power  by  taking 
away,  by  words  alone,  the  life  which  he  said  he  had, 
by  words  alone,  restored.  Han  then  began  an  incan- 
tation, and  the  man's  flesh  diminished,  till  nothing 
but  the  bare  bones  were  left.  This  function  so 
impressed  the  magistrate  that  he  resigned  his  office 
and  honours,  and  went  with  Han  to  join  the  genii. 
He  is  known  as  Lu  Tong  Pin,  the  patron  of  fencers, 
and  the  protector  of  the  sick,  and  his  symbol  is  a 
rapier.  It  is  averred  that  in  one  of  his  earthly  exist- 
ences he  was  an  emperor  of  the  Song  dynasty,  named 
Hui  Chong.  Though  he  had  been  wise  when  among 
the  genii,  he  forgot  his  duties  on  becoming  an 
emperor,  and  lived  in  ease  and  luxury,  using  his 
powers  for  selfish  ends.  At  that  time  the  greatest 
scholar  in  the  empire  was  Liang  Au,  who  was  faith- 
ful and  humane,  and  beloved  of  men  and  gods.  One 


244  A   COKNER   OF  CATHAY. 

night  the  emperor  dreamed  that  he  would  the  next 
day  be  struck  by  lightning.  He  went  to  the  great 
scholar  and  said :  "  To-morrow  the  lightning  will 
strike  me,  because  I  have  had  place  and  power  and 
have  not  rightly  used  them.  I  will  transform  myself 
into  a  kernel  of  rice,  which  you  must  put  under  your 
finger-nail  and  press  against  your  body:  thus  I  shall 
be  safe  from  the  stroke.  All  that  day  the  emperor 
appeared  to  be  very  ill,  and  remained  in  bed,  while 
his  soul  in  the  kernel  of  rice  was  safely  kept  by 
Liang  Au,  who,  at  night,  returned  it  to  its  own 
place. 

The  fourth  genius,  Chiang  Ku  Lao,  remained 
unborn  for  eighty  years,  knowing  that  his  mother 
would  die  in  giving  him  birth.  He  had  white  hair 
and  beard  even  in  infancy,  and  he  became  a  genius 
without  delay.  He  carries  writing-implements  and 
guides  authors  to  a  good  style. 

The  fifth,  Chau  Kok  Ku,  by  meditating  upon 
Tauism,  came  to  despise  rank,  riches,  and  office,  and 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR    MAGIC    ARTS.      245 

went  away  to  a  retreat  among  the  mountains.  There 
the  Mother  of  the  Genii  found  him,  and  gave  to 
him  the  fruit  of  her  tree.  He  carries  castanets,  and 
is  the  patron  of  mummers  and  actors. 

The  sixth,  Hang  Siang  Chu,  left  a  family  who  had 
no  sympathy  with  his  longings  for  knowledge,  and 
went  and  lived  as  a  recluse  in  a  forest.  He  plays 
the  pipe,  and  assists  musicians. 

The  seventh,  Na  Chai  Hua,  was  a  sage  youth  who 
was  one  day  picking  flowers  on  the  mountains.  He 
saw  six  genii  roaming  there,  and  joined  himself  to 
them.  He  aids  florists,  and  is  often  represented  with 
a  flower-basket  and  a  spade. 

The  eighth,  O  Sien  Ko,  was  a  pious  woman  who 
kept  an  inn.  She  was  so  cleanly  that  Lu  Tong  Pin, 
who  frequented  her  house,  thought  she  deserved 
immortality,  and  led  her  to  become  a  genie.  She  is 
said  to  have  invented  boats.  Her  first  craft  was  a 
mere  raft,  without  means  of  propulsion.  But  one 
day  when  she  was  washing  clothes  in  the  river,  she 


246  A    CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

took  a  hint  from  a  fish  that  was  rowing  with  its  fins 
and  steering  with  its  tail,  and  she  then  put  oars  and 
a  rudder  upon  her  boat.  She  carries  a  lotus-flower, 
and  helps  in  housewifery. 

Each  of  the  chief  genii  has  many  servants.  These, 
like  their  superiors,  can  instantly  change  themselves 
into  animals,  stones,  water,  trees,  or  whatever  will  best 
serve  their  purpose.  Men  who  have  proven  worthy 
to  enter  into  the  mysteries  of  Tauism  have  learned 
their  arts  and  may  follow  their  practices.  They  are 
certainly  skilled  in  legerdemain,  and  some  of  them 
are  doubtless  powerful  mesmerists.  In  the  Song 
dynasty  (960  to  1127  A.D.)  there  was  a  magician 
named  Ang,  who  sometimes  took  his  friends  with 
him  on  his  flying  mat  that  made  journeys  of  many 
leagues  in  a  few  minutes.  The  visits  were  always 
made  to  scenes  with  which  the  passenger  was  familiar. 
Ang  put  his  arm  around  his  friend,  and  burned  a 
charm  upon  each  of  the  four  corners  of  his  mat. 
He  warned  his  fellow-passenger  that  he  must  sit  still 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR    MAGIC    ARTS.       247 

and  keep  his  eyes  shut,  else  he  would  be  dropped  on 
the  way.  To  the  passenger,  the  mat  appeared  to 
move  swiftly  and  gently,  as  a  cloud  through  the  air, 
until  he  was  told  that  he  might  open  his  eyes,  since 
they  had  arrived  at  their  destination.  Then  he  found 
himself  in  the  city  to  which  he  had  expected  to  go, 
spent  the  day  in  sight-seeing,  and  returned  to  his 
home  at  nightfall,  upon  the  wonderful  mat,  which 
the  wizard  spread  outside  the  city  wall.  One  pas- 
senger, who  wanted  to  see  how  far  he  had  gone  upon 
his  homeward  way,  opened  his  eyes  a  few  minutes 
after  starting,  and  he  instantly  fell  to  the  ground. 
He  found  himself  four  leagues  from  home,  and  had 
to  walk  all  that  distance  in  the  dark,  before  he 
reached  his  own  door.  On  arriving  there  he  found 
Ang  waiting  for  him,  ready  to  disclaim  all  responsi- 
bility for  the  result  of  his  disobedience. 

Priest  Ang  had  rivals,  in  his  day,  in  the  Seven 
Sisters,  who,  like  him,  practised  the  arts  of  the  mys- 
tics. They  were  the  daughters  of  one  mother,  and 


248  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

lived  together  on  the  seashore.  As  they  called  them- 
selves more  expert  than  Ang,  he  invited  them  to 
compete  with  him  openly,  to  prove  whether  they  or 
he  was  the  greater  in  necromancy.  Ang,  in  order 
to  get  ready  for  the  contest,  went  to  sleep  for  three 
days  and  nights,  after  having  told  his  children  that 
they  must  on  no  account  awaken  him  during  that 
time.  On  the  third  day  of  his  nap,  one  of  the  Seven, 
wishing  to  find  out  what  he  was  doing,  changed  her- 
self in^o  the  semblance  of  his  youngest  sister,  and 
came  to  his  house,  saying  that  she  wished  to  confer 
with  him  about  an  important  family  matter.  His 
children  told  her  that  he  was  taking  a  three-days' 
sleep,  and  must  not  be  disturbed.  The  counterfeit 
sister  refused  to  believe  this,  and  in  order  to  pacify 
her,  she  was  permitted  to  look  into  his  room  to  see 
him.  She  at  once  threw  him  into  a  state  of  coma, 
and  then  declared  that  he  was  dead;  and  when  his 
family  had  assembled  around  his  bed,  she  shyly  manip- 
ulated a  grain  of  rice  into  a  maggot  and  inserted 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC   ARTS.       249 

it  in  his  nostril.  When  the  maggot  crawled  out,  his 
relatives  were  persuaded  that  he  was  indeed  dead, 
and  they  put  him  into  a  coffin  and  buried  him. 
Having  disposed  of  their  enemy,  the  seven  women 
rejoiced.  -But  as  soon  as  Ang's  spirit  could  come 
back  to  his  eldest  son  in  a  vision,  he  gave  orders 
that  his  coffin  should  be  disinterred,  enclosed  in  an 
iron  box,  and  cast  into  the  sea.  His  son  obeyed  this 
behest,  and,  in  the  next  storm,  the  iron  coffin,  riding 
upon  the  waves,  acted  as  a  battering-ram,  and  beat 
down  the  house  of  the  Seven  Sisters,  that  was  upon 
the  seashore. 

Ang  left  an  apt  pupil  in  Yang  Kuang,  who  became 
almost  as  celebrated  as  his  master,  whose  books  he 
inherited.  When  he  had  grown  old  and  blind,  he 
was  one  day  sitting  under  a  tree,  and  some  labourers 
said  to  him,  "A  young  lady  is  approaching.  If  you 
will  make  her  take  off  her  tunic  before  she  reaches 
here,  we  will  give  you  a  leg  of  pork."  Yang  Kuang 
took  up  a  handful  of  straw,  murmured  over  it  an 


250  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

incantation,  and  blew  the  straw  toward  the  young 
lady.  She  immediately  pulled  off  her  tunic,  exclaim- 
ing that  it  was  covered  with  centipedes.  The  labourers 
laughed,  and  went  off  to  get  the  pork  for  Yang  Kuang. 
He  took  the  pork  home,  and  told  his  wife  how  he 
got  it.  She  thereupon  informed  him  that  the  young 
lady  was  their  married  daughter,  who  had  just  arrived, 
disarrayed  and  ashamed,  and  she  at  once  went  in 
anger  and  burned  up  his  books.  He  had  no  son, 
and  some  of  his  arts  are  now  lost  to  the  world. 

A  few  tens  of  years  ago,  there  was,  at  a  village 
near  Swatow,  a  wizard  who  permitted  a  friend  to 
ride  on  his  mat;  but  at  the  present  time  most  of 
the  wizards  are  either  less  powerful  or  less  obliging. 
There  are  many  who  tell  of  the  afflictions  their 
acquaintances  have  suffered  under  the  visits  of  un- 
seen beings.  The  trouble  is  invariably  preceded  by 
conference  with  a  Tauist  fortune-teller  or  priest.  The 
necromancer  gets  information  of  the  hour,  day,  month, 
and  year  of  birth,  and  twelve  hairs  from  his  victim's 


CHINESE   TAUISTS    AND   THEIR   MAGIC    ARTS.      251 

head,  with  money  for  buying  what  he  declares  to 
be  necessary  for  the  performance  of  incantations.  He 
gives  in  return  a  promise  to  propitiate  demons  and 
to  obtain  aid  from  the  benign  spirits.  If  the  woman 
be  good  prey,  the  priest  may  "  conceal  his  body " ; 
that  is,  render  himself  invisible  and  tease  her.  When 
she  is  bathing,  she  may  be  whisked  out  of  her  room, 
and  set  down,  tub  and  all,  in  the  court-yard;  when 
she  is  conversing  with  guests,  she  may  suddenly  find 
herself  barefoot ;  when  she  has  a  meal  spread  for  her 
household,  offal  unaccountably  appears  upon  the  chief 
dish.  If  the  woman  runs  away  to  another  village, 
"the  concealed  man"  follows  her,  and  continues  his 
persecutions  until  the  chief  priest  is  appeased  by  a 
sufficiently  valuable  present,  after  which  the  mani- 
festations cease. 

It  is  thought  that  any  of  those  who  learn  the  arts 
of  the  genii,  taught  among  the  mountains  where  the 
Tauist  patriarch  resides,  may  roam  unseen  through 
other  person's  houses,  taking  the  tid-bits  from  the 


252  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

feast,  the  gala-dresses  from  the  chest,  the  silver  from 
the  purse.  They  may,  at  any  moment,  invade  the 
boudoir  or  the  council-chamber. 

A  family  near  Swatow  had  long  been  afflicted  by 
the  depredations  and  aggressions  of  one  of  these 
unseen  foes.  Dainties  miraculously  disappeared;  a 
handsome  daughter-in-law  pined;  and  no  private  con- 
ference could  take  place  in  the  house,  because  the 
invisible  one  was  always  there  to  hear.  The  eldest 
man  of  the  household  went  secretly  to  visit  his 
married  daughter,  and  there  boiled  a  leg  of  pork, 
which  he  carefully  poisoned  and  brought  home.  Hav- 
ing told  the  members  of  his  family  that  the  pork 
was  a  present  from  his  daughter,  and  that  none  beside 
himself  should  touch  it,  he  put  it  away  in  a  cup- 
board. Not  long  after,  a  portion  of  the  pork  had 
disappeared,  and  somewhat  later  a  dead  priest  was 
found  in  a  granary  near  by. 

A  class  of  persons  who  profess  to  be  of  royal 
lineage  are  called  the  Hong  Yang  magicians.  Hong 


CHINESE   TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC    AKTS.      253 

Yang  was  in  his  youth  a  cowherd.  One  day  he  said 
to  his  companions,  "I  am  an  emperor,  and  you  are 
my  courtiers  and  ministers.  I  will  kill  an  ox  and 
make  a  feast  for  you."  He  then  took  a  leaf  of 
pampas-grass,  and  it  became,  in  his  hand,  a  sword, 
with  which  he  slew  one  of  the  oxen.  After  the 
barbecue,  Hong  Yang  spread  the  ox-hide  over  a 
stone,  and  when  the  owner  of  the  cattle  came  to 
count  them  and  found  that  one  was  missing,  Hong 
Yang  pointed  to  the  stone  as  the  missing  ox.  "  That 
is  no  live  ox,"  cried  the  owner.  But  Hong  Yang 
called  to  the  stone,  and  it  lowed  in  reply,  and  then 
sank  into  the  earth.  Hong  Yang  was  dismissed  from 
his  employment  as  cowherd,  and  wandered  off  to  a 
monastery,  where  he  lodged  with  the  monks  and  took 
care  of  their  garden.  When  the  plants  were  well 
grown,  Hong  Yang  called  them  mandarins,  and  ap- 
pointed for  them  lictors  and  equipage.  After  that, 
the  monks  frequently  heard  such  din  of  arms,  feet, 
and  voices  as  is  incident  to  the  progress  of  officials. 


254  A   COKNER   OF   CATHAY. 

They  inquired  vainly  concerning  the  cause,  until 
Hong  Yang  confessed  that  he  was  to  be  an  emperor, 
and  had  assigned  rank  and  duties  to  the  vegetables 
under  his  care.  The  monks  sent  the  uncanny  lad 
away,  and  after  many  adventures  he  came  to  the 
throne.  When  he  was  old  he  questioned  his  heir, 
saying,  "  Which  choose  you,  to  feed  your  subjects, 
or  to  be  fed  by  your  subjects?"  His  heir  replied, 
"I  will  be  fed  by  my  subjects,  as  becomes  a  ruler." 
Foreseeing  a  harmful  selfishness  in  his  successor, 
Hong  Yang  thereupon  pronounced  a  curse  which 
condemned  this  heir  and  all  his  posterity  to  go 
forth  and  beg  food  during  a  certain  portion  of  the 
life  of  each.  Those  who  call  themselves  the  de- 
scendants of  Hong  Yang  still  wander  through  the 
empire  as  mendicants.  It  is  asserted  that  if  they 
do  not,  for  at  least  three  years  continuously,  roam 
as  beggars,  a  pestilence  breaks  out  among  them,  and 
they  are  thus  ever  forced  to  obey  the  angry  mandate 
of  their  ancestor.  They  dress  elegantly,  and  accept 


CHINESE  TAUISTS   AND   THEIR   MAGIC   AETS.      255 

only  what  is  respectfully  handed  to  them  on  a  clean 
salver.  Some  of  them  are  jugglers,  some  are  venders 
of  medicines,  and  some  are  magicians.  They  are 
credited  with  power  to  stop  the  circulation  of  any 
person's  blood  by  pointing  a  finger  at  him;  with 
working  spells  under  which  one  slowly  pines  away 
and  dies ;  and  with  possessing  the  art  of  making 
themselves  invisible.  When  they  are  known  to  be 
in  the  neighbourhood,  the  people  keep  their  doors 
shut  and  conceal  themselves. 

Whatever  the  name  applied  to  these  various  classes 
of  persons  who  support  themselves  by  the  practice 
of  magic,  they  are  all  Tauists,  and  generally  trace 
their  art  back  to  the  Dragon  Tiger  Mountain,  in 
whose  secret  recesses  the  Tauist  patriarch  carries  on 
psychic  research  and  instructs  his  followers  in  mys- 
ticism. 

Legerdemain,  ventriloquism,  and  hypnotism,  directed 
by  the  lowest  passions  and  exercised  upon  the  ignorant, 
doubtless  accomplish  all  that  is  set  forth  by  un- 


256  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

scientific  spectators  and  wonder-loving  narrators.  Wit- 
nesses intentionally  veracious  are  often  the  subjects 
of  hallucination.  In  the  acquisition  of  truth,  which 
is  nothing  other  than  complete  conformity  to  fact, 
no  evidence  should  be  admitted  save  that  of  ob- 
servers duly  qualified.  Since  correct  methods  of 
investigation  have  never  been  applied  to  the  subject, 
there  is  no  sound  reason  for  believing  that  any  force 
unknown  to  science  manifests  its  potency  in  Chinese 
Tauism. 


CHINESE   PIETY:   FILIAL,   FRATERNAL, 
AND   FRIENDLY. 

HEATHENISM  consists  largely  in  false  standards  of 
duty.  In  China  the  amount  of  literature  deemed 
necessary  for  the  establishment  of  correct  notions  of 
piety  is  in  direct  ratio  to  the  unnaturalness  of  the 
ideas  promulgated.  On  parental  duty,  whose  ful- 
filment is  the  foundation  of  all  well-being,  little  is 
written  or  said;  while  volumes  are  required  to  set 
forth  the  observances  due  to  a  mother-in-law,  living 
or  dead. 

Confucius  puts  all  human  obligations  under  five 
heads,  and  tersely  expounds  those  between  sovereign 
and  subject,  parent  and  child,  husband  and  wife, 
brother  and  brother,  friend  and  friend.  While  virtue 
is  reckoned  "its  own  reward,"  there  is  a  general 

257 


258  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

belief  in  an  occult  power  that  is  on  the  side  of  right- 
eousness, and  all  accept  the  common  saying,  "Good 
comes  to  the  good."  Many  stories  are  told  of 
special  providences  favouring  the  well-doer,  and  the 
following  is  given  as  an  illustration.  A  man  went 
to  the  Departmental  City  to  collect  debts.  He  had 
collected  one  hundred  and  fifty  silver  dollars,  which 
were  in  three  parcels  of  fifty  each,  and  he  sat  down 
to  rest,  and  look  at  a  passing  procession.  He  laid 
the  parcels  between  his  feet  and  ate  some  sugar- 
cane, the  refuse  of  which  gradually  formed  a  pile 
that  covered  the  dollars.  After  a  while  he  got  up 
and  went  away,  forgetfully  leaving  the  dollars  under 
his  seat.  An  old  man  presently  came  and  sat  down 
in  the  same  place,  soon  felt  something  hard  under 
his  heels,  discovered  the  parcels  of  dollars,  and 
knowing  that  the  loser  must  return  in  search  of 
them,  remained  on  guard.  The  loser  soon  came 
back  and  asked  the  old  man  if  he  had  seen  the 
money,  and  on  describing  it  with  sufficient  accuracy 


CHINESE   PIETY.  259 

to  prove  that  it  was  his,  the  old  man  gave  it  to 
him,  and  he  gratefully  invited  his  benefactor  to 
visit  him  at  his  home  in  Am  Po.  Some  months 
later  the  old  man  called  at  his  house,  but  he  was 
absent.  He  returned  a  few  minutes  after  the  caller 
had  left,  and  on  hearing  who  had  been  there,  hur- 
ried off  and  overtook  his  guest  just  as  the  latter 
was  embarking  on  a  boat  to  go  to  the  Departmental 
City.  The  young  man  urged,  and  finally  persuaded, 
the  old  man  to  go  home  with  him  and  spend  the 
night  in  his  house.  That  night  the  boat  on  which 
the  old  man  would  have  embarked  was  wrecked  in 
a  typhoon,  and  all  on  board  perished.  This  is 
thought  to  show  that  the  saving  of  the  old  man's 
life  was  a  reward,  arranged  by  Heaven,  on  account  of 
his  correct  behaviour  concerning  the  dollars. 

According  to  the  Chinese  standard,  no  duty  stands 
before  that  of  worshipping  one's  departed  progenitors. 
Deceased  parents  and  other  ancestors  are  worshipped 
about  thirteen  times  a  year;  that  is,  on  their  birth- 


260  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

days,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  day  of  decease,  on  New 
Year's  Day,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  second  month,  at 
the  vernal  equinox,  on  the  fifth  day  of  fifth  month,  on 
the  fifteenth  day  of  seventh  month  and  of  eighth  month, 
at  the  autumnal  equinox,  on  the  last  day  of  the  year, 
and  at  the  visitation  of  the  tombs.  Whenever  one 
parent  is  specially  worshipped,  as  on  the  birthday  or 
death-day  of  either,  the  other  parent  is  also  worshipped. 
Ancestors  are  worshipped  by  offerings  of  fish,  fowl, 
pork,  cakes,  tea,  wine,  rice,  spirit-money,  and  incense. 
The  very  poor  use  small  quantities,  the  rich  great 
stores,  of  food-stuffs ;  but  all  must  offer  the  full 
number  of  dishes.  Parents  are  worshipped  in  their 
own  house  so  long  as  it  is  occupied  by  their  male 
descendants.  After  the  sons  or  grandsons  establish 
separate  families,  they  take  turns  in  making  offer- 
ings, either  in  the  main  room  of  the  ancestral  home, 
or  in  the  ancestral  temple  where  the  tablets  of 
ancestors  are  kept.  When  any  son  or  grandson 
dies,  one  of  his  children  makes  the  usual  offerings 


CHINESE  PIETY.  261 

in  his  stead.  All  require  each  to  do  his  part  in 
the  providing  of  offerings,  but  none  obliges  another 
to  bow  down  and  worship.  The  tribes,  of  which 
each  son  of  the  deceased  is  a  chief,  hold  themselves 
distinct,  and  worship  as  long  as  they  exist,  or  until 
the  ancestor  is  forgotten.  Thirty  generations  are 
said  to  worship  each  departed  parent.  If  the  ancestor 
was  rich  and  powerful,  he  is  worshipped,  as  is  Con- 
fucius, for  many  more  than  thirty  generations. 

Some  worshippers  eat  their  own  offerings,  some 
distribute  them  among  the  members  of  the  tribe, 
according  to  agreement  in  each  case,  and  according 
to  the  number  of  fields  inherited.  In  the  formal 
annual  visitation  of  the  tombs,  either  in  third  month, 
tenth  month,  or  eleventh  month,  the  provisions  are 
weighed,  cut  up,  and  then  distributed  equally  to 
groups  having  an  equal  number  at  each  spread. 
They  sit  upon  the  grass,  and  partake  of  the  food, 
which  has  all  been  cooked  before  being  offered  at 
the  graves.  What  is  left  after  the  feast  is  carried 


262  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

home.  There  are  sometimes  hundreds  of  persons 
who  meet  in  one  company  to  worship  at  a  grave, 
though  the  women  do  not  generally  join  in  this 
particular  annual  festival. 

Some  men  set  apart  a  portion,  perhaps  a  tenth 
part,  of  the  land  owned  by  them,  for  supplying  the 
expenses  of  worshipping  them  after  their  death. 
This  portion  is,  after  the  death  of  its  owner,  held 
as  common  property  by  his  heirs.  The  remainder  is 
equally  divided  among  his  sons.  The  eldest  son 
and  his  descendants  generally  have  the  care  of  the  land 
held  as  common  property  by  the  tribe ;  but  if  the 
eldest  is  foolish  or  lazy,  some  other  branch  of  the 
family  takes  charge  of  it.  Many  feuds  arise  out  of 
a  desire  to  control  the  Common  of  the  clan.  If  all 
agree  thereupon,  the  Common  may  be  sold  to  one 
of  the  tribe,  who  is  ever  after  to  make  all  the  offer- 
ings at  the  grave ;  but  generally  the  Common  is 
cultivated,  and  the  offerings  provided  for  one  year 
by  each  of  the  tribes  in  turn. 


CHINESE   PIETY.  263 

Mencius  says,  "  The  good  man  is  he  who  does  not 
lose  his  child's  heart."  All  Chinese  teaching  exalts 
above  other  virtues  that  of  filial  devotion,  and  the 
emperor  often  commands  the  erection  of  monuments 
to  the  memory  of  faithful  daughters-in-law.  To  do 
well  is  to  honour  one's  parents.  The  government, 
recognizing  the  influence  of  forebears,  ennobles  the 
father  and  mother  of  every  man  who  by  personal 
merit  attains  rank.  Titles  are  extended  backward  to 
the  ancestors  who  produced  the  hero,  not  forward  to 
the  posterity  who  may  be  his  unworthy  issue. 

Near  a  road  that  I  often  travelled  was  a  tomb 
raised  above  ground,  and  its  peculiarity  was  explained 
by  a  warning  legend.  Long  ago  a  poor  young  man, 
by  diligent  study,  took  the  highest  literary  degree, 
became  a  mandarin,  and  filled  an  office  in  a  distant 
province.  After  several  years'  absence  he  returned 
to  his  native  town,  and  as  he  passed  along  the  road  in 
his  grand  sedan-chair,  he  was  accosted  by  his  mother, 
who  had  become  a  beggar.  She  called  him  by  name, 


264  A   CORNER   OP   CATHAY. 

but  he  refused  to  recognize  or  help  her.  Finding  all 
her  appeals  to  him  vain,  she  knelt  upon  the  ground, 
and  cursed  him,  saying,  "  Tolerate  him  not,  O  ye 
Heavens,  and  support  him  not,  O  ye  Earth !  "  A  few 
days  later  he  died,  and  when  his  coffin  was  carried  to 
the  hills  for  burial,  so  soon  as  it  was  put  into  the 
ground,  the  thunder  roared,  the  lightning  flashed,  and 
the  earth  cast  him  forth  from  his  grave.  A  second 
and  a  third  time  was  his  body  interred,  with  the  same 
sequence.  Then  a  sepulchre  was  reared  for  him 
above  ground,  and  the  coffin  therein  enclosed.  This 
tomb  remained  intact,  and  made  known  to  posterity 
the  sin  which  the  heavens  would  not  tolerate,  nor 
the  earth  hide. 

The  first  duty  of  every  married  woman  is  believed 
to  be  that  of  taking  care  of  her  husband's  mother, 
and  many  bright  examples  of  self-sacrifice  are  kept 
before  the  feminine  mind  in  illustrative  folk-stories. 
A  popular  book  tells  of  one  poverty-stricken  woman 
who  gave  the  natural  food  of  her  babe  to  its  grandam ; 


AN    HONORARY    PORTAL 


CHINESE   PIETY.  265 

and  of  another  who  sold  herself  as  a  slave  that  she 
might  get  the  means  of  buying  a  coffin  for  her  dead 
mother-in-law. 

On  the  contrary,  one  who  fails  in  devotion  to  the 
parents  of  her  husband  is  sure  to  come  to  a  bad  end, 
as  in  the  following  instructive  instance. 

An  unfilial  son  had  a  wife  who  hated  his  old 
mother.  He  was  an  only  child,  and  had  been  the 
idol  of  his  mother's  heart,  the  object  of  her  constant 
care.  In  her  old  age  she  was  wholly  dependent  upon 
him;  and,  as  she  had  become  bedridden,  she  needed 
much  attention  from  his  wife.  The  wife  was  selfish 
and  hard-hearted,  but  her  husband  was  fond  of  her; 
and  when  she  declared  that  she  would  no  longer 
endure  his  mother's  presence  in  the  house,  but  would 
leave  him  and  marry  some  other  man,  he  told  her 
he  would  carry  his  mother  away,  and  cast  her  into  a 
pit.  So  he  deceitfully  took  his  aged  parent  on  his 
back,  telling  her  it  was  long  since  she  had  been  out 
to  take  the  country  air,  and  that  she  would  be  the 


266  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

better  for  a  little  change  of  scene.  They  started 
toward  the  woods,  and,  as  they  went,  the  old  woman 
told  her  son  that  he  had  gladdened  her  heart  ten 
times.  The  first  was  when  he  was  born,  and  when, 
after  much  sorrow,  she  knew  that  she  had  a  living 
boy;  the  second  was  when  she  first  saw  him  smile, 
and  she  knew  that  he  was  comfortable  in  her  arms ; 
the  third  was  when  he  first  held  a  thing  in  his  hand, 
and  she  knew,  by  his  grasp  upon  it,  that  he  was 
strong;  the  fourth  was  when  he  began  to  walk,  and 
she  knew  that  he  would  learn  to  take  care  of  himself 
and  to  help  her;  the  fifth  was  when  he  first  went 
off  with  other  boys  to  gather  fuel,  and  she  thought 
that,  having  him,  she  could  keep  the  house,  and  make 
a  home ;  the  sixth  was  when  she  first  gave  him  some 
money,  and  he  started  off  without  her  to  buy  their 
food  in  the  market;  the  seventh  was  when  she  could 
afford  to  let  him  go  to  school,  and  he  came  back  at 
nightfall,  and  told  her  what  the  teacher  had  taught 
him ;  the  eighth  was  when  he  put  on  the  garb  of  an 


CHINESE   PIETY.  267 

adult,  and  she  knew  that  she  had  a  man  to  depend 
on  at  last;  the  ninth  was  when  she  got  a  wife  for 
him,  had  paid  all  the  wedding  expenses,  and  made 
him  able  to  establish  a  household  of  his  own ;  the 
tenth  was  when  he  just  now  took  her  on  his  back, 
to  carry  her  out  to  get  sight  of  the  sky  and  the  fields, 
that  she  might  be  refreshed,  and  live  the  longer. 
As  she  talked  thus,  her  son's  heart  was  softened,  and 
he  could  not  cast  away  the  mother  who  had  loved 
him  so  well.  He  therefore  turned  about  and  went 
homeward,  but  he  did  not  dare  take  the  old  woman 
back  to  the  house  in  which  his  wife  was ;  and  so  he 
put  her  down  in  a  shed,  where  ashes  were  heaped, 
and  straw  was  stored.  He  made  a  bed  for  her  upon 
and  behind  some  straw,  and  told  her  he  would  bring 
her  food  at  meal-time.  When  he  went  into  the  house, 
his  wife  asked  him  what  he  had  done  with  the  old 
woman,  and  he  said  he  had  thrown  her  into  the  pit. 
The  wife  was  satisfied,  and  became  very  pleasant 
toward  her  husband.  The  hours  passed,  the  meal- 


268  A   COKNER   OF  CATHAY. 

times  came  and  went,  and  the  man  could  not  make 
up  his  mind  to  take  food  to  the  shed,  through  fear 
that  his  wife  would  thus  discover  that  his  mother 
was  there.  The  old  woman  got  hungry,  and  at  last 
crawled  out  from  behind  the  straw  toward  the  door, 
to  see  if  her  son  was  not  coming  to  bring  food  to 
her.  Just  at  that  moment  the  wife  came  to  empty 
a  pan  of  ashes  in  the  shed,  and  as  she  opened  the 
door  she  saw  the  old  woman,  with  dishevelled  hair, 
pallid  face,  and  wild  eyes,  staring  out  at  her.  Stricken 
with  terror  at  the  sight  of  what  she  believed  to  be 
the  ghost  of  her  mother-in-law,  she  fell  backwards, 
struck  her  head  on  a  stone,  and  instantly  died.  The 
son  afterward  brought  his  old  mother  back  into  his 
house,  and  took  good  care  of  her. 

Chinese  law  and  custom  permit  a  man  to  divorce 
a  wife  who  is  unkind  to  his  mother.  The  mother-in- 
law  is  often  exacting,  and,  in  such  case,  the  husband 
is  apt  to  chide  his  wife  in  public,  out  of  conventional 
filial  respect,  and  to  comfort  her  in  private,  out  of 


CHINESE   PIETY.  269 

sincere  affection.  A  man  often  finds  it  difficult  to 
adjust  the  differences  between  his  mother  and  his 
wife,  and  but  few  are  so  careful  in  management  as 
was  the  husband  in  the  following  actual  case. 

A  man  who  had  a  mother  and  a  wife  dependent 
upon  him  for  support,  went  to  foreign  parts  to  seek 
his  fortune.  He  earned  money,  and  sent  it  home ; 
and  there  was  enough  of  it  to  keep  the  two  women 
in  comfort.  After  some  years  he  returned,  and  his 
aged  mother  privately  told  him  that  she  had,  during 
his  absence,  suffered  from  lack  of  food,  and  that  his 
wife  had  been  harsh  and  cruel  toward  her  all  the 
time  that  he  had  been  gone.  The  wife  also  com- 
plained secretly  to  him,  and  said  that  his  mother  had, 
in  growing  old,  grown  jealous  and  peevish  beyond 
endurance,  and  accused  her  of  constant  oppression. 
The  husband  did  not  know  which  woman  to  believe ; 
but  he  was  a  filial  son,  and  a  kind  husband,  and  he 
wished  to  act  justly  toward  both  his  mother  and  his 
wife.  After  hearing  again  and  again  the  complaints 


270  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

of  each  against  the  other,  and  finding  himself  unable 
to  discover  which  was  in  the  wrong,  he  decided  to 
bring  out  the  truth  by  a  practical  test.  His  busi- 
ness called  him  away  from  home  again  for  some 
months,  and,  before  going,  he  told  his  wife  that  he 
would  ask  her  to  take  care  of  his  mother  for  this 
one  period  only.  He  did  not  wish  her  to  be  harried 
and  maligned  by  his  mother,  who  was  so  dependent 
and  so  troublesome,  and,  when  he  next  time  returned, 
he  would  quietly  dispose  of  the  old  creature.  There 
were  ways  of  silently  ridding  one's  self  of  expensive 
and  worrisome  aged  persons ;  and  it  would  be  easier 
to  accomplish  the  thing  without  being  suspected  of 
it,  if  the  old  woman  was  well-fed,  handsomely  clothed, 
and  kindly  treated  for  some  months  beforehand.  His 
wife  at  once  replied  that  she  would  see  that  his 
mother  was  well  cared  for  until  his  return. 

Then  he  had  a  private  conference  with  his  mother, 
and  told  her  that  since  his  wife  was  so  unloving 
toward  her,  he  would  on  his  next  return  home  dispose 


CHINESE   PIETY.  271 

of  her  in  marriage  to  some  other  man,  and  get  for 
himself  a  wife  who  would  correctly  perform  the 
duties  of  a  daughter-in-law.  He  asked  his  mother 
to  be  patient  and  pleasant  toward  his  wife  during  his 
absence,  and  to  find  no  fault  with  her  whatever  she 
might  do  or  neglect  to  do,  because  in  marrying  her 
off  and  in  seeking  a  new  helpmeet  for  himself,  it 
would  be  better  that  she  should  have  no  just  ground 
of  complaint  against  his  mother.  The  old  woman 
agreed  to  this,  and  the  man  went  abroad. 

When  he  came  back,  some  months  later,  he  asked 
his  wife  how  his  mother  had  treated  her  during  his 
absence.  The  wife  iterated  all  her  former  statements 
against  the  mother,  and  expressed  her  wish  that  he 
would  immediately  carry  out  his  intention  of  ending 
the  old  woman's  existence.  He  then  sought  his 
mother,  and  said  that  now  he  had  returned  he  was 
ready  to  act  on  the  plan  lie  had  formed  before  going 
away,  and  to  marry  off  her  unfilial  daughter-in-law. 
The  old  woman  begged  him  not  to  do  any  such 


272  A   CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

thing,  declaring  that  his  wife  had  repented;  had 
brought  pork,  fish,  and  well-cooked  rice  for  her  meals, 
and  had  given  her  no  reason  for  fault-finding  during 
all  the  time  he  had  been  gone. 

The  man  went  back  to  his  wife's  apartment,  and 
beat  her  so  soundly  that  the  neighbours  came  in  to 
see  what  was  the  matter.  When  they  saw  what  was 
going  on,  they  said :  "  Formerly,  when  you  were  away, 
your  wife  starved  your  mother,  and  was  not  reproved 
by  you  when  you  came  back.  Lately,  she  has  taken 
good  care  of  your  mother  while  you  were  gone,  and 
now  you  maul  her.  What  does  it  mean?"  The  man 
explained  his  ruse  to  his  assembled  neighbours  and 
relatives,  and  they  all  approved  his  judgment.  His 
wife  sincerely  repented  and  honestly  reformed. 

Many  romances  and  dramas  owe  their  interest  to 
the  national  ideas  of  filial  duty,  and  are  dependent 
thereupon  for  their  chief  situations.  A  popular  play 
has,  for  example,  the  following  plot:  A  man  has  a 
second  wife,  who  maltreats  his  little  son  and  daugh- 


CHINESE   PIETY.  273 

ter.  The  wife  has  a  paramour,  who  daily  comes  to 
see  her  in  her  husband's  absence,  and  in  order  to 
have  the  children  out  of  the  way,  she  sends  them 
to  gather  sticks.  When  the  husband  returns,  he  sees 
the  children  coming  home  with  heavy  loads  of  fuel. 
He  chides  his  wife  for  abusing  his  children,  and  the 
wife  therefore  hates  the  children  the  more.  She 
cooks  a  dish  of  pork,  poisons  it,  and  leaves  it  on  a 
table  where  the  children  will  see  it  when  they  return 
from  fuel-hunting.  The  husband  is  absent,  and  the 
wife  and  paramour  are  in  another  room  when  the 
children  come  in  weary  and  hungry,  and  see  the  pork. 
They  gaze  at  it,  but  do  not  touch  it,  for  fear  of  their 
step-mother's  anger,  and  they  go  away  safely.  The 
step-mother's  little  brother  then  arrives,  pilfers  and 
eats  the  pork,  and  immediately  falls  in  fatal  convul- 
sions. The  husband  just  then  returns,  and  the  wife 
and  paramour  accuse  the  husband  of  murdering  the 
little  brother.  The  husband  is  arrested  and  impris- 
oned. His  children  return,  hear  of  his  being  in 


274  A    CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

prison,  take  all  the  cash  they  possess,  and  go  to  the 
jailer,  hoping  to  get  access  to  their  father.  The 
jailer  takes  their  cash,  but  opens  only  an  empty  cell 
for  them  to  look  into,  and  then  tells  them  they 
cannot  see  their  father  for  any  sum  less  than  ten 
ounces  of  silver.  The  girl  begs  her  brother  to  sell 
her,  and  use  the  money  for  helping  their  father;  but 
this  the  boy  refuses  to  do.  The  girl  then  sells  her- 
self, as  a  slave,  to  an  old  woman,  who  proves  to  be 
wicked,  and  in  whose  power  she  remains. 

The  brother,  alone  and  helpless,  goes  off  to  a 
distant  province,  where  he  grows  up  strong  and 
brave.  A  prince,  travelling  in  that  province,  is  at- 
tacked by  robbers.  The  young  man  saves  the  life 
of  the  prince  by  single-handed  prowess,  is  rewarded 
by  a  promise  of  the  hand  of  the  prince's  daughter, 
and  is  invited  to  accompany  the  prince  to  his  own 
province.  He  there  receives  appointment  by  the 
emperor  to  a  high  office,  marries  the  princess,  and 
takes  her  in  a  boat  toward  his  native  village,  where 


CHINESE   PIETY.  275 

he  intends  to  effect  his  father's  release.  While  in 
his  boat,  on  a  river,  he  picks  up  a  drowning  maiden, 
who  has  jumped  from  a  window  into  the  water  to 
avoid  the  loss  of  her  honour.  The  girl  is  taken 
to  the  princess's  barge,  restored  to  her  senses,  clothed 
comfortably,  and  asked  to  tell  her  story.  The  hus- 
band overhears  the  narration,  recognizes  his  own 
sister,  goes  in  and  declares  his-  relationship,  arid  con- 
vinces the  girl  of  its  truth  by  recalling  events  in 
their  childhood.  They  all  proceed  together  to  the 
native  village ;  the  old  father  is  released  and  made 
happy;  the  magistrate  who  put  him  in  prison  is 
beheaded;  the  bad  step-mother  is  quartered;  and  the 
filial  children  rejoice. 

Next  to  filial  piety  lies  fraternal  unity.  One  of 
the  greatest  of  sins  is  reckoned  that  of  setting 
brothers  at  variance,  while  the  virtuous  woman  is 
she  who  preserves  harmony  between  her  husband 
and  his  kin.  Much  praise  is  given  to  a  wife  who 
plots  wisely  for  her  young  brother-in-law. 


276  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

There  was  a  man  who  had  a  wife  and  a  younger 
brother,  and  the  three  lived  in  one  house.  The 
elder  brother  was  often  unjust  and  discourteous 
toward  the  younger,  and,  as  the  wife  at  such  times 
took  the  part  of  the  brother,  she  incurred  her  hus- 
band's displeasure,  and  led  a  troubled  life.  The 
behaviour  of  the  husband  toward  his  brother  was 
emphasized  by  the  contrast  between  it  and  his  treat- 
ment of  a  friend,  who  came  constantly  to  his  house, 
received  his  fullest  confidence,  ate  his  best  viands, 
and  had  his  frequent  praise.  The  wife  told  her  hus- 
band that  his  brother  was  truly  a  more  worthy  man 
than  was  his  friend,  and  better  deserving  of  his 
esteem  and  his  dainties ;  but  this  distrust  of  his  friend 
brought  blows  upon  the  wife,  and  finally  caused  the 
expulsion  of  the  brother  from  the  house.  The  young 
man  went  away,  hired  himself  out  as  a  miller,  and 
earned  his  living  by  hard  day-work.  The  wife,  find- 
ing that  her  warnings  were  disregarded,  and  that 
the  false  friend  continued  to  have  her  husband's 


CHINESE   PIETY.  277 

favour,  thought  out  a  way  whereby  her  husband 
should  discover  his  friend's  insincerity.  She  ceased 
ommending  the  discarded  brother,  and  lauded  the 
intimate  friend.  After  she  had  thus  conciliated  her 
husband,  she  took  a  fagot,  made  the  effigy  of  a  mur- 
dered man,  wrapped  it  in  matting,  arid,  late  at 
night,  secretly  laid  it  on  the  door-step  of  her  own 
house.  When  her  husband  opened  the  door  next 
morning  at  dawn,  he  saw  on  the  step  what  he  sup- 
posed to  be  a  dead  body,  cast  there  by  some  mis- 
creant who  desired  to  divert  attention  from  himself. 
Knowing  that  he  would  be  summarily  accused  of 
murder  should  the  body  be  seen  on  his  premises, 
and  that  the  corpse  would  be  too  heavy  for  him 
alone  to  carry  away  to  a  burial  place,  he  rushed  to 
his  friend,  told  him  what  had  happened,  and  besought 
him  to  instantly  assist  him  in  carrying  the  body  to 
a  certain  spot  where  it  could  be  secretly  interred. 
He  dilated  upon  the  danger  of  delay,  but  his  friend 
declined  to  incur  risk  on  his  account;  said  he  was 


278  A  CORNER   OF   CATHAY. 

going  to  a  wedding  that  day,  and  had  no  time  to 
spare ;  and  that  he  had  duties  which  forbade  his 
implicating  himself  in  such  an  affair.  The  husband, 
being  coldly  dismissed  by  his  friend,  thought  of  his 
brother,  hastened  to  the  mill  where  he  slept,  hur- 
riedly told  him  his  plight,  and  was  instantly  accom- 
panied by  his  sympathizing  relative,  who  assisted 
him  in  burying  the  body  in  the  spot  of  which  the 
elder  brother  had  spoken  to  his  false  friend.  Then 
the  two  brothers  returned  to  the  house  of  the  elder 
one,  and  the  husband  told  the  wife  what  had  oc- 
curred. She  made  the  younger  brother  sit  down  to 
breakfast,  and  then  told  her  husband  that  he  ought 
now  to  know  which  cared  for  him  and  his  interests  — 
the  friend  who  saw  him  in  such  a  plight  and  refused 
to  help  him,  or  the  brother  who,  at  great  risk,  hast- 
ened to  rescue  him  from  danger.  The  husband 
acknowledged  the  force  of  her  words,  and  retained 
his  brother  in  the  old  home. 

Soon  after  this,  the  husband  was  accused  of  murder. 


CHINESE   PIETY.  279 

His  false  friend  had  bargained  with  a  man  who  made 
the  charge,  for  the  purpose  of  exacting  blackmail, 
which  he  was  to  divide  with  his  informant  and  insti- 
gator. The  terrified  husband  conferred  with  his  wife, 
and  she  told  him  to  allow  himself  to  be  taken  before 
the  magistrate  for  judgment.  If  the  murder  were 
proven,  he  would  be  beheaded ;  but  if  he  were  falsely 
accused,  the  accuser  should  pay  him  five  hundred 
ounces  of  silver  as  damages.  This  judgment  was 
rendered,  and  the  accuser  told  where  the  body  was 
buried.  It  was  dug  up,  and  shown  to  be  an  effigy; 
but  the  wise  wife's  part  in  the  transaction  was  never 
brought  to  light.  The  husband  gave  the  silver  to 
his  younger  brother,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  own 
error;  a  wife  was  taken  for  him,  and  the  whole  fam- 
ily lived  thereafter  in  peace  and  prosperity. 

Friendships,  outside  the  clan  and  family  circle,  ap- 
pear to  be  based,  among  the  Chinese,  not  so  much 
upon  personal  congeniality  as  upon  practical  conven- 
ience. Whenever  any  favour  has  been  received,  there 


280  A   COKNER   OF   CATHAY. 

is  usually  reasonable  gratitude  returned.  Before  any 
consideration  is  begged  from  a  stranger,  presents  are 
sent,  and  the  acceptance  of  them  is  understood  as  an 
indication  of  willingness  to  oblige.  When  hospitality 
has  been  received,  every  effort  is  made  to  return  it 
in  kind  or  other  kind.  Many  amusing  stories  are 
told  of  the  dilemmas  of  stingy  hosts,  or  of  the  unex- 
pected return  of  visits  when  it  is  the  luck  of  both 
purse  and  pot  to  be  empty. 

There  were  two  men,  one  rich  and  stingy,  the 
other  learned  and  poor.  The  rich  man  had,  in  his 
journeyings,  often  lodged  at  the  scholar's  house,  and 
had  been  freely  entertained  with  the  best  that  the 
family  possessed.  The  scholar  was  one  afternoon  re 
turning  from  a  long  journey,  which  brought  him  into 
the  rich  man's  neighbourhood ;  and,  as  it  was  too  late 
for  him  to  reach  home  that  night,  he  decided  to  go 
and  stay  till  the  morrow  with  the  friend  he  had  so 
many  times  entertained.  On  his  arrival,  the  host  ex- 
pressed great  delight  in  seeing  him,  and  in  having 


CHINESE  PIETY.  281 

opportunity  to  reciprocate  one  of  the  many  favours 
received  from  him.  He  said  that  he  much  regretted 
that  it  was  too  early  to  catch  a  fowl  from  the  roost, 
and  that  it  was  too  dark  to  go  to  one  of  his  pools  to 
catch  some  fish,  and  that  he  would  go  to  his  garden 
and  get  some  fresh  vegetables  to  accompany  the  boiled 
rice  that  they  should  have  for  supper.  He  went  and 
peered  about  in  his  large  garden ;  but  the  fully  grown 
vegetables  and  fruits  were  fit  to  sell,  while  the  half- 
grown  ones  could  not  be  pulled  without  waste.  He 
could  not  bring  himself  to  take  anything  more  than  a 
few  gourds  which  he  ordered  to  be  boiled,  and  set 
upon  the  table  as  a  relish. 

Not  many  months  after,  the  scholar  was  promoted 
to  office,  and  in  the  course  of  official  duty  he  gave 
command  for  the  removal  of  a  line  of  shops  that 
lay  in  the  course  of  a  projected  road.  The  rich  man 
owned  shops  among  those  on  the  encumbered  land, 
and  so  he  wrote  to  the  officer,  asking  him,  in  memory 
of  the  salt  they  had  eaten  together,  to  lay  the  road 


282  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

in  another  place.  The  officer  replied  that,  as  he  had 
partaken  of  his  hospitality,  he  would  on  that  account 
change  the  route  of  the  new  road  from  the  eastern 
to  the  western  side  of  the  town,  and  he  added,  — 

At  dusk  'tis  too  light  to  catch  fowls,  as  you  wish, 
And  at  dark  one  qaii't  go  to  the  pool  to  get  fish, 
But  a  street  can  be  moved  just  for  gratitude's  sake : 
When  one  sups  upon  gourds,  one  remembers  the  dish. 

The  difficulty  which  may  arise  out  of  the  accept- 
ance of  hospitality  and  the  strict  necessity  of  its 
return,  is  hinted  at  broadly  in  the  tale  of  two  friends 
of  unequal  worldly  conditions.  Mr.  Yang  had  a 
friend,  Mr.  Chong,  who  used  to  come  frequently  to 
visit  him  and  get  the  best  that  the  house  afforded. 
After  having  fed  Mr.  Chong  unnumbered  times,  and 
having  talked  with  him  uncounted  hours  with  great 
zest,  Mr.  Yang  went  unexpectedly  one  day  to  visit 
his  friend  in  his  own  house  and  arrived  in  the  fore- 
noon. Mr.  Chong  received  his  guest  with  great 
apparent  pleasure;  put  aside  all  business  and  sat 


CHINESE   PIETY.  283 

down  to  talk.  As  the  guest  had  made  a  long  journey, 
he  was  tired  and  hungry,  and  was  somewhat  sur- 
prised that  Mr.  Chong  offered  him  no  refreshment; 
but  he  thought  that  the  unexpected  pleasure  of  see- 
ing him  had  made  his  host  oblivious  of  his  bodily 
needs,  and  he  therefore  excused  the  absence  of  mate- 
rial hospitality  in  the  steady  flow  of  conversation 
and  inquiry.  Noon  came  and  went  without  invita- 
tion to  partake  of  food,  and  the  afternoon  wore  on 
apace.  At  last,  being  too  exhausted  for  further 
converse,  the  guest  said  that  he  must  go  home.  His 
host  thereupon  exclaimed  at  his  own  thoughtlessness, 
in  having  prepared  no  refreshment  for  his  visitor, 
having  been  so  engrossed  in  the  satisfaction  of  the 
spirit  as  to  have  utterly  forgotten  the  requirements 
of  the  flesh.  He  then  begged  his  guest  to  stay  till 
a  suitable  meal  should  be  made  ready,  and  he 
hastened  to  the  kitchen  and,  in  a  voice  quite  audible 
to  the  guest  in  the  parlour,  he  told  his  wife  to  heat 
the  stove  while  he  should  go  out  and  buy  meats  of 


284  A   CORNER    OF   CATHAY. 

various  sorts  for  a  little  banquet.  The  wife  heated 
the  stove,  and  the  host  presently  entered  the  kitchen, 
put  on  a  kettle,  and  when  it  was  very  hot  threw 
cold  water  into  it,  making  much  noise  with  dipper 
and  steam.  The  guest  thought  a  great  dinner  was 
being  cooked,  and  as  he  was  very  hungry,  he  exer- 
cised a  sincere  courtesy  when  he  politely  called  out 
to  his  host,  urging  him  to  prepare  but  few  viands, 
and  to  give  him  a  simple  dish  of  boiled  rice.  The 
host  replied,  saying  that  he  should  be  unhappy  if 
he  did  not  express  his  pleasure  in  his  friend's  com- 
pany by  setting  forth  the  full  complement  of  meats 
and  vegetables.  The  clatter  in  the  kitchen  continued, 
until  the  wife,  who  had  been  kept  fanning  the  fire 
in  the  hot  stove  while  her  husband  fried  spoonfuls 
of  water,  finally  fell  over  in  a  dead  faint.  The 
husband  covered  the  kettles,  and  then  begged  the 
guest  to  come  to  the  kitchen  and  suggest  a  remedy 
for  the  heat-stricken  housewife,  who  lay  prone  on 
the  floor.  The  guest  ran  to  give  aid,  but  one  glance 


CHINESE   PIETY.  285 

around  the  kitchen  showed  him  the  absence  of  the 
usual  debris  accompanying  the  preparation  of  a  meal. 
On  pretence  of  looking  for  some  hot  broth  for  the 
woman,  he  hastily  lifted  the  covers  from  the  pots ; 
and  the  host  seeing  further  effort  useless,  sank  sense- 
less beside  his  wife,  while  the  guest  embraced  the 
opportunity  to  depart  without  leave-taking. 

Filial  piety,  among  the  Chinese,  is  most  fully  mani- 
fested after  the  parents  are  dead;  fraternal  feeling 
is  limited  to  kith  and  clan,  and  seldom  extends  to 
an  interest  in  the  human  family ;  and  friendship  per- 
missibly exists  solely  among  those  of  the  same  sex, 
and  for  practical  objects.  They  have  fixed  rules  for 
behaviour  in  all  relationships  toward  those  included 
in  their  scheme  of  living,  but  their  sages  gave  them 
no  instruction  concerning  foreigners,  and  all  aliens 
are  looked  upon  as  natural  enemies  against  whom 
their  first  impulse  is  toward  distrust,  dislike,  and  ex- 
ploitation. But  that  they  are  a  people  of  the  highest 
capabilities  is  well  known  to  the  writer  through  her 


286  A  CORNER   OF  CATHAY. 

personal  acquaintance  with  isolated  instances  of  un- 
selfish tenderness,  of  lofty  self-respect,  of  true  spirit- 
ual aspiration,  and  of  wide  philanthropy,  and  through 
her  constant  observation  among  them  of  heroic  en- 
durance, of  marvellous  patience,  and  of  sublime  ear- 
nestness. 


THE   END. 


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